Multiscale Porous Carbon Nanomaterials for Applications in Advanced Rechargeable Batteries

Abstract

The Construction of advanced electrode materials can push the boundaries of electrochemical performance of energy storage devices and accordingly open up a booming energy storage market. Typically, porous carbon is one of the most widely used materials in the field of batteries due to its attractive properties including large porosity, high electronic mobility, good mechanical strength and chemical stability, and ultrahigh specific surface area. This review focuses on diverse synthetic methods of multiscale porous carbon nanomaterials including direct carbonization, electrospinning, puffing, hydrothermal methods, and chemical vapor deposition, with and without templates, as well as their applications in different rechargeable secondary batteries. We summarize different dimensional porous carbon (1D, 2D and 3D) with controlled pore sizes and analyze their formation mechanisms. Additionally, the structure-activity relationship of multiscale porous carbon nanomaterials is reviewed in detail. Meanwhile, we propose general guidelines to fabricate multiscale porous carbon nanomaterials with large surface area and high conductivity. Finally, future prospects and development trends on the advanced multiscale porous carbon nanomaterials toward construction of next-generation batteries are presented.

Sustainable Battery Materials from Biomass

“…The main advantage of this arrangement is that it impedes the formation of dendrites. Furthermore, natural graphite is a still‐abundant resource, which, even in battery grade, is usually cheaper than carbon materials synthesized in a chemical laboratory, even though all kinds of (waste) biomass may be carbonized, as described in many reviews . Such synthetic carbon materials are still interesting for some applications.…”

“…Furthermore, although graphite can only be used as an intercalation material under certain circumstances in sodium‐ion batteries, owing to the weak substrate binding energy, heteroatom doped hard carbons have successfully been applied. Likewise, biomass‐based porous carbon materials may be used in cathodes of lithium–sulfur, lithium–selenium, or lithium–oxygen batteries to host sulfur or selenium, or to catalyze the oxygen reduction/oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER), respectively, as discussed in several reviews. Porous carbons not only increase conductivity in such systems but also, in the case of lithium–sulfur or lithium–selenium batteries, prevent polysulfide or polyselenide dissolution in the electrolyte to some extent, owing to the adsorption properties of carbon surfaces.…”

Recent Advances in Carbon‐Based Bifunctional Oxygen Catalysts for Zinc‐Air Batteries

“…Amongst, carbon materials are the most popular candidates to construct efficient bifunctional oxygen catalysts for ZABs, due to their high electrical conductivity, high chemical stability, versatile porous nanostructure, tunable physical and chemical properties, and low cost . Remarkably, the electronic structure of carbon materials can be facilely modified via multiple regulation strategies (e. g., heteroatom doping, defect engineering, surface engineering, etc .)…”

The Role of Functionalization in the Applications of Carbon Materials: An Overview

“…The porous carbon is characterized by a high specific surface area enhancing the interaction with the external medium. Although it possesses a lower conductivity with respect to glassy carbon, the high porosity and the presence of active sites makes it a good material to fabricate electrodes for applications in electrochemistry [51][52][53] and bioelectrodes for sensing and stimulation [54,55].The same holds for the carbon black mainly utilized as additive in rubbers and polymers to improve their mechanical properties, or as a pigment [56] although new potentialities have been recently envisaged [57].Common to all the forms of carbon which are briefly summarized above, is the interaction with other substances occurring at the surface which strongly depends on the surface chemistry. This work will provide a broad overview on the diverse functionalization processes applied to carbon materials.…”

“…The porous carbon is characterized by a high specific surface area enhancing the interaction with the external medium. Although it possesses a lower conductivity with respect to glassy carbon, the high porosity and the presence of active sites makes it a good material to fabricate electrodes for applications in electrochemistry [51][52][53] and bioelectrodes for sensing and stimulation [54,55].…”