Loofah-derived carbon as an anode material for potassium ion and lithium ion batteries

By Zhenrui Wu, Liping Wang, Jie Huang, Jian Zou, Shulin Chen, Hua Cheng, Cheng Jiang, P. Gao, X. Niu. Electrochimica Acta, 2019

139 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract In this work, we report a facile and inexpensive strategy to synthesize loofah-derived pseudo-graphite (LPG) through alkali treatment process followed by a one-step pyrolysis procedure. This mesoporous hard carbon material offers superb dual functionality for both lithium-ion battery (LIB) and potassium-ion battery (KIB) anodes. Tested against lithium and potassium, LPG delivers a specific capacity of 225 mAh·g−1 in LIBs and 150 mAh·g−1 in KIBs after 200 cycles at the current density of 100 mA g−1. The good performance of LPG for both LIBs and KIBs mainly originates from its dual storage mechanism. On one hand, wider layered pseudo-graphite units provide space for Li+/K+ intercalation at higher voltages (>0.17 V in LIBs, > 0.56 V in KIBs). On the other hand, highly accessible mesoporous structure and defect-activated units in the near-surface region make it possible for Li+/K+ deposition at low voltages. The different performance of LPG in LIBs and KIBs may originate from varied ion-storage mechanisms. Despite the similar diffusion coefficient (D+), lower capacity of LPG for potassium can be contributed to its limited intercalation kinetics in higher voltage (>0.56 V) and evidently higher resistance in the charge-transfer process (Rct).

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6334735fcdf03afc5bbdcb2e46b09c8803d00977