Biomass-derived nitrogen-doped carbon on LiFePO4 material for energy storage applications

Abstract

LiFePO4 (LFP) is a well-known material used in cathodes for the application of lithium-ion batteries as a result of its increased stability in thermal and structural aspects. Nonetheless, the low conductivity of LFP in terms of electronic and ionic are major disadvantages of this material. The LFP's surface has been coated with nitrogen-doped carbon to solve these disadvantages. Sericin is the coating material utilized and it is one of the components of silk cocoon which is abundant in carbon and nitrogen and readily available. The nitrogen-doped carbon-coated LFP, particularly for 1.0 wt% N-C@LFP, has exhibited excellent discharge capacity delivering 113.51 mAh g−1 at 1 C rate whereas bare LFP with no coating merely 94.27 mAh g−1, confirming approximately 20% improvement of the discharge capacity. This indicates that the electrochemical performance of LFP is enhanced when nitrogen-doped carbon derived from sericin is used as a coating material for LFP.