Biomass‐Derived P, N Self‐Doped Hard Carbon as Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalyst and Anode Material for Seawater Batteries

Abstract

Owing to the demand for low-cost batteries with safety, Na-seawater batteries (SWBs) have received considerable attention as a new energy storage system (ESS). In SWB, it is necessary to use an advanced oxygen evolution/reduction reaction (OER/ORR) catalyst for high energy efficiency (EE) in the cathode and a good sodium storage material for a highly reversible capacity in the anode part. In this study, nanostructured and N and P dual-doped hard carbon is fabricated by simply carbonizing abundant biomass, pine pollen. The oxygen electrocatalytic performance of pine pollen carbon (PPC) for a cathode is confirmed by a seawater half-cell test, which exhibits the lowest overpotential reported among Pt/C (20 wt%) and commercial hard carbon (HC) electrodes. The sodium-storage performance of PPC as an anode active material is tested using a coin-type Na half-cell, which exhibits a higher reversible capacity than that of the HC electrode. To reduce the manufacturing cost, this SWB, comprising both PPC electrodes at the anode and cathode, are fabricated and shown an EE of 74% and a coulombic efficiency (CE) of 98%. This study proposes a low-cost and safe ESS system by utilizing seawater as catholyte, bifunctional (OER/ORR, sodiation/desodiation) electrode configuration, and abundantly available biomass carbon.

Biomass‐Derived Carbon for High‐Performance Batteries: From Structure to Properties

“…[151,152] M a X b materials provide the required "vacancies" for the insertion of Li + in the process of discharging. [153] The valence of a certain element in M a X b can be changed due to the Li + insertion and extraction process, while the structural [48,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84] The performance improvement diagrams of BDC-based materials in b) LIBs, [79,80,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] c) SIBs, [8,81,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103] and d) KIBs [104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] in recent years. e) Comparison of LIBs, SIBs, and KIBs.…”

“…a) The timeline for the development of BDC for high‐performance batteries. [ 48,78–84 ] The performance improvement diagrams of BDC‐based materials in b) LIBs, [ 79,80,85–95 ] c) SIBs, [ 8,81,96–103 ] and d) KIBs [ 104–113 ] in recent years. e) Comparison of LIBs, SIBs, and KIBs.…”

“…Figure 1a shows a timeline for the development of BDC for high-performance batteries, which can provide a good way to overview the progress reported for each year. [48,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84] Many studies have been reported by using BDC as an important part of batteries. [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] To better understand the research progress of BDC, we summarized the performance improvement diagrams of BDC-based materials in LIBs (Figure 1b), [79,80,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] SIBs (Figure 1c) [8,81,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103] and KIBs (Figure 1d) [104][105]<...…”

“…Research progress of BDC in batteries. a) The timeline for the development of BDC for high-performance batteries [48,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84]. The performance improvement diagrams of BDC-based materials in b) LIBs,[79,80,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] c) SIBs,[8,81,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103] and d) KIBs[104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] in recent years.…”

Nitrogen‐Rich Carbonaceous Materials for Advanced Oxygen Electrocatalysis: Synthesis, Characterization, and Activity of Nitrogen Sites

“…Reproduced with permission. [ 145 ] Copyright 2021, Wiley‐VCH GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. d) Schematic illustration of the OER and ORR process in seawater batteries for pyridinic nitrogen‐containing carbon cathode.…”