Fabrication of Janus carbonaceous particles with controllable morphology and application in the anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

With an increasing requirement for functional materials, anisotropic Janus particles have gradually developed into highly attractive materials in catalysis, drug delivery, lotion stabilizer and other fields. Herein, non-crosslinked poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (poly(GMA)) served as seed particle, GMA and trimethylolpropane trimethylacrylate (TMPTMA) were utilized as functional monomer and crosslinker, respectively. The composition of water phase consisted of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS), and 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone served as photo-initiator. A series of Janus particles with asymmetric morphologies such as lychee-like, acorn-like, half raspberry-like and hamburger-like were fabricated via seed-swelling photoinitiated polymerization. In addition, several parameters such as the ratio of monomers and crosslinker and the type of porogenic solvent were adjusted to improve the anisotropy, dispersity and uniformity. Subsequently, Janus carbonaceous particle was acquired via calcination and utilized as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The relevant properties were measured via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), cyclic performance and constant current charging and discharging testing, demonstrating better performance for electrochemistry. After the second cycle, the stable coulombic efficiency of 95.24% over 100 cycles. Thus, our strategy provides an excellent insight for fabricating Janus carbonaceous particle with controllable morphology, and is expected to have applications in other fields.