The influence of nitrogen doping on reduced graphene oxide as highly cyclable Li-ion battery anode with enhanced performance

Abstract

A straightforward, one-step route has been established to fabricate reduced- (rGO) and nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (NrGO) with remarkable lithium-ion storage properties. The graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized as starting material by improved Hummers’ method. Thereafter, thermally annealing GO with NH3 at elevated temperature to synthesize NrGO was yielded a more open structure with nitrogen sites suitable for enhanced Li intercalation. NrGO exhibited a reversible capacity of 240 mAhg−1 at 10 Ag-1 after 500 cycles with 90% capacity retention, which is the best result achieved among graphene oxide-based anodes at this current density. In contrast to rGO, NrGO cells exhibited a gradually increasing capacity profile, reaching up to 114% of the initial capacity at 0.1, 2, and 10 Ag-1 current densities. Results showed that high occupancy of pyridinic N within NrGO enhanced battery performance and cell kinetics upon cycling which offers long-time operability at high current density.