P-Doped Hive-like Carbon Derived from Pinecone Biomass as Efficient Catalyst for Li–O₂ Battery

Abstract

Development of energy storage materials with high energy density to fulfill the demand of next generation batteries is a blistering topic under immense debate. The Li–O2 battery is attracting much more attention for its enhanced theoretical energy density compared to the traditional Li-ion battery. Porous oxygen-breathing catalysts, especially biomass-derived materials, could offer plenty of oxygen diffusion paths and Li2O2 formation space, which is beneficial for the Li–O2 battery. In this work, a simple method is used to prepare phosphorus doped pinecone-derived hive-like carbon (P-PHC) with a porous structure. This P-PHC as a non-noble catalyst owns unique architecture as well as active P sites, a large BET surface area, and abundant defects on the surface. Ex-situ SEM images demonstrate that the porous structure of P-PHC remains during the discharging process. EIS results reveal that P-PHC could guarantee better charge transfer as well as better O2 and Li+ diffusion. Due to the synergistic effect of higher activity from abundant defects on the surface as well as better O2 and Li+ diffusion from the unique hive-like structure, P-PHC delivers a large discharge specific capacity of 24 500 mAh g–1 at a current density of 100 mA g–1 and a durable cycling number of 205 times when operated at a specific capacity of 1 Ah g–1 under a current density of 0.5 A g–1. This work proposes a sustainable strategy of reusing wasted biomass for rechargeable batteries, which would be beneficial to the energy and environment fields.

Preparation of phosphorus-doped porous carbon for high performance supercapacitors by one-step carbonization

“…As reported in the literature, pure carbon materials can provide only limited catalytically active sites, and heteroatom doping is thought to cause redistribution of charges between carbon atoms, thereby activating small molecules. 19 Therefore, heteroatom doping (e.g., O, N, P, S, B) is elected as a useful method to enhance the capacitive performance of carbon materials. 9,[20][21][22][23][24] Among them, the main reasons for choosing P are lower electronegativity and larger covalent radius.…”

“…20 In addition, a much larger covalent radius of P (107 AE 3 pm) than C (73 AE 1 pm) causes many defects in the carbon material skeleton. 19 These defects concentrate a large amount of charge, which may be the main active site. Therefore, with these unique characteristics of the P atom, P could be an ideal dopant for carbon.…”

“…A phosphorus-doped porous carbon, prepared using leaves as raw materials and phosphoric acid as a phosphorus dopant and its application in sodium ion and lithium ion batteries was reported by Zhu et al 28 Jiang et al used NaH 2 PO 4 as a P-doping source to prepare P-doped carbon derived from pinecone as an efficient catalyst for a Li-O 2 battery. 19 Nirosha et al reported on preparation of phosphorus-doped carbon for asymmetric supercapacitors using Elaeocarpus tectorius as a carbon source and phosphoric acid as phosphorus. 29 It is worth noting that the weight ratio of the raw material to the phosphorus dopant in the above work is relatively high, ranging from 1 : 2 to 1 : 10.…”

NiFeRu Layered Double Hydroxide and Its Derivatives Supported on Graphite Foam as Binder-Free Cathode for Nonaqueous Li-O2 Batteries

“…To realize a stable cathode and a superior Li-O 2 battery, numerous research efforts concerning catalyst design and catalytic mechanism have been devoted to the electro-catalytic materials field (Chang et al, 2017). Various cathode materials based on carbon materials (Qin et al, 2019), heteroatom doping carbon material (Jiang et al, 2019), noble metal (Zhang et al, 2019), and metal oxides (Yuan et al, 2019) have been used to the LOBs. The aim is to enhance the performances of LOBs by promoting the reaction kinetics associated with Li 2 O 2 generation/decomposition.…”

Well-dispersed Pt/RuO2-decorated mesoporous N-doped carbon as a hybrid electrocatalyst for Li–O2 batteries

“…For example, carbon materials extracted from various biomaterials, such as water-soluble starch, plant peel, and fruits, have been utilized as catalyst supports for O 2 -electrodes of Li-O 2 batteries. [17][18][19][20][21] In this study, protein-based tofu was investigated as a raw material for activated carbon for use as a catalyst support. The Ndoped carbon surface arising from the amino acids of the protein and porous structure generated by KOH activation have previously been shown to enhance the performance of Li-O 2 batteries.…”