Tubular graphene-supported nanoparticulate manganese carbodiimide as a free-standing high-energy and high-rate anode for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

Combination of high-energy density and high-power density is highly pursued in the development of advanced lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In this paper, we fabricate a free-standing anode composed of tubular graphene-supported nanoparticulate manganese carbodiimide (TG/MnNCN) for high-energy and high-power LIBs. MnNCN nanoparticles conformally coated three-dimensional TG with high surface area provide abundant active sites for electrochemical reaction and the high conductivity of TG facilitates intrinsic electron pathways and efficient ion transport channels. More importantly, the non-covalent π-π interaction between NCN group and graphene is beneficial for interfacial charge transport. Consequently, the TG/MnNCN anode exhibits a high areal capacity of 9.8 mA h cm−2 at 0.5 mA cm−2 and a high rate capacity of 3.5 mA h cm−2 at 50 mA cm−2 even at a high mass loading of up to 10 mg cm−2. Excitingly, the TG/MnNCN anode also presents impressive performance in Li-ion full cell (coupled with LiCoO2 cathode) with an outstanding energy density (15.08 mWh cm−2 and 343 Wh kg−1) and power density (378.5 mW cm−2 and 8.7 kW kg−1), indicating the potential for high-energy and high-power LIB applications.