Porous Bamboo‐Derived Carbon as Selenium Host for Advanced Lithium/Sodium–Selenium Batteries

Abstract

Selenium (Se) has received extensive attention as the most competitive cathode material for next generation high‐energy batteries. However, the shuttle effect of polyselenide and volume change lead to inferior electrochemical properties. To solve these issues, a porous bamboo‐derived carbon (PBC) with abundant meso/micropores is prepared as a framework to effectively encapsulate elemental selenium. For Li–Se batteries, Se/PBC electrode delivers an outstanding capacity of 509 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.2 C (1 C = 675 mA g−1) with a low capacity fade of 0.036% per cycle. The Se/PBC composite also reveals a satisfied electrochemical performance for Na–Se batteries with an excellent capacity of 409 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.2 C. Moreover, Se/PBC electrode also presents excellent long‐term cycle performance and rate performance at 15 C for Li–Se batteries and 10 C for Na–Se batteries. The outstanding properties are attributed to the specific 3D structure and high conductivity of PBC, which significantly inhibits the shuttle effect and enhances the reaction kinetics. Herein, not only the great application potential of bamboo in energy storage systems is demonstrated, but also an effective approach and low‐cost strategy for improving the performance of lithium/sodium–selenium batteries is offered.