Nitrogen-doped porous graphitized carbon from antibiotic bacteria residues induced by sodium carbonate and application in Li-ion battery

Abstract

Graphitic porous carbons with high electronic conductivity and abundant pores show great potential in many fields due to their unique physical and chemical properties. The traditional technique for the acquirement of artificial graphite is always conducted under high temperature above 2700 °C, leading to serious energy loss and high costs. In this study, antibiotic bacteria residues (ABRs), a kind of solid waste generated upon the production of antibiotics, are recycled into hollow-tunneled graphitic carbon derived from ABRs with N-doping (N-GC) using Na2CO3 as catalyst at 900 °C. Compared with graphitic carbon (G-AC) derived from ABRs at 2800 °C, the obtained N-GC shows a decent graphitization degree (69.8% vs. 57.0% of G-AC), high electronic conductivity (36.90 S cm−1 vs. 17.06 S cm−1 of G-AC at 20 MPa), well-developed porous structure as well as a high N containing amount (1.26% vs. 0.50% of G-AC). When used as anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs), the N-GC sample shows excellent electrochemical properties including good cyclability, long durability and good rate performance.