Frontiers in Energy Research (Jul 2020)

Polydopamine-Derived Carbon: What a Critical Role for Lithium Storage?

  • Xiaoyong Qian,
  • Fangzhou Zhang,
  • Yuye Zhao,
  • Kai Liang,
  • Wei Luo,
  • Jianping Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2020.00140
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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Polydopamine-derived carbon materials have attracted tremendous attention owing to nitrogen heteroatom doping. However, it is challenging to estimate the effect of the morphology and porosity of the polydopamine-derived carbon for lithium storage. Here, we designed three polydopamine-derived carbon materials with different morphologies and porosity: carbon nanospheres (CNs), mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNs), and bowl-like mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (BMCNs) to evaluate the electrochemical performance. Such a bowl-like mesoporous structure combines multiple advantageous features, including mesoporous channels and shorter transmission distance, thus delivering a high specific capacity. In addition, our work provides new insight into the electrochemical performance of polydopamine-derived carbon and a useful reference for its future application in high-performance lithium ion battery (LIB) electrode materials.

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