Nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers as anode material for high-capacity and binder-free lithium ion battery

Abstract

Coral-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were directly grown onto stainless steel by a thermal CVD with N-rich imidazole and acetylene as precursor gasses. The resultant samples, as anodes without using any conductive additive and binder, were assembled into lithium ion batteries. The representative anode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 862.2mAhg−1 at a current density of 200mAg−1 and a capacity as high as 415.0mAhg−1 at 2000mAg−1 after 150 cycles. Such a superior electrochemical performance can be attributed to the unique coral-like nanostructure of CNFs as a result of nitrogen doping, which could shorten the diffusion distance of Li+ and largen the contact area between the active materials and electrolyte.