Iron-decorated N/S co-doped porous carbon for sodium-ion battery anode to achieve high initial coulombic efficiency

Abstract

Hard carbon materials are preferred as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries due to their abundance, low price, and environmental friendliness. However, doping-based modification usually induces low initial coulombic efficiency (ICE), which seriously affects the practical application of carbon materials. In this work, Fe-modified N/S co-doped porous carbon is prepared using the salt template method. Fe, N, and S are uniformly distributed on the porous carbon to form an interwoven network structure, providing abundant active sites. Moreover, during the electrochemical reaction, FeNx effectively catalyzes the generation of solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film, which reduces the consumption of Na+ in the side reaction, leading to a high initial coulombic efficiency, and at the same time, the stabilized SEI film accelerates the diffusion of electrons and ions, effectively enhancing the multiplication rate performance. The NFSC exhibits a high specific capacity (371.3 mAh/g) by the co-coordination strategy and a high ICE (85.9%). This study provides new ideas for research based on the modification of carbon materials.