Abstract
In this paper, a novel nitrogen-doped carbon paper (NCP) with both highly dense three-dimensional cellular structure and excellent bending flexibility is fabricated by pyrolyzing a melamine foam under compression. When serving as a free-standing anode for lithium-ion batteries, the NCP electrode delivers a reversible capacity up to 329.8 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.5 A g−1 (1.34 C) and 126.5 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles at 8.0 A g−1 (21.5 C). Such electrochemical performance is much higher than those of the counterparts prepared by pyrolysis without compression and can be mainly attributed to (a) the 3D highly dense interconnected carbon network with numerous junctions which can facilitate the efficient electron transfer and provide short transportation paths for lithium ions; and (b) the excellent mechanical flexibility and self-standing capability which exempt the use of binder, conductive additive and current collector. The NCP electrode implies a great promise of application in the high-performance Li-ion batteries for the flexible and wearable electronics.
Highlights
Flexible carbon materials, as free-standing electrodes in LIBs, have attracted numerous attentions for their tunable structures, high chemical stability, and good electrical conductivity[3]
The capacity (e.g., ~180 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1) and cycling stability of the LIBs with the as-synthesized carbon foams used as the electrodes is still unsatisfactory, which is probably due to the low density of the carbon foams
According to the pressure under which the pyrolysis is performed, the obtained nitrogen-doped carbon paper (NCP) samples are designated as NCP-200k, NCP-400k, and NCP-600k, respectively
Summary
As free-standing electrodes in LIBs, have attracted numerous attentions for their tunable structures, high chemical stability, and good electrical conductivity[3]. Electrospinning has been applied as an alternative fabrication technique for the free-standing carbon-based electrodes[21,22,23,24] This technique has some shortcomings such as slow electrode preparation rates, residual impurity components and overmuch pore volume in the electrospun materials. The obtained carbon foam displayed a high specific surface area, a low density (5 mg cm−3) and a high electrically conductivity These properties make ECF a promising candidate for the free-standing flexible anode material for high-performance LIBs. Recently, a few similar works reported the developments of mesoporous carbon foams as anodes for LIBs27. A highly dense and flexible nitrogen-doped carbon paper (NCP) is obtained and found to possess a higher gravimetric capacity, cycling performance, and rate performance in comparison to those of the counterparts prepared without compression
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