Nitrogen doped porous carbon with high rate performance for lithium ion storage

Abstract

Amorphous carbon has been studied in anode electrode materials of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its rich resources and adjustable structure. However, due to its low conductivity, it shows poor rate performance. In this work, amorphous nitrogen doped porous carbon (NDPC) was synthesized by salt template method using ionic liquid (C10H15N5) as sources of carbon and nitrogen. The structure characterization shows that there is an interaction between the introduction of nitrogen atoms and porous structure: nitrogen doping can promote charge transfer, and porous carbon structure can reduce the diffusion path of lithium ions. Therefore, the NDPC shows excellent lithium ion diffusion ability and good electronic conductivity. When NDPC is applied to the anode material of LIBs, it shows a superior lithium ion storage performance of 412 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles at a current density of 1860 mA g−1. The study provides favorable conditions for the development of carbon anode materials with in situ heteroatom doping and porous structure.