Rechargeable
sodium–selenium (Na–Se) batteries have
attracted increasing attention due to their high energy density and
the abundant resource of Na. However, their practical application
is hindered by a short lifespan due to the active material dissolution,
shuttling effect, and volume variation of the Se cathode. Herein,
we report a facile strategy to significantly boost the cycling stability
of the Se cathode by restrained amorphous Se into a N/O-doped defective
carbon matrix derived from poplar-catkin (Se@NOPCC). Density functional
theory calculations and experimental results elucidate that N/O active
sites on the defective carbon enable a strong chemical affinity with
the Se chain and NaSe2/Na2Se discharged products,
which suppresses the shuttling effect and dissolution issues. In addition,
the amorphous Se embedded in the hierarchically porous carbon relieves
the strain and accommodates the huge volume variation during the sodiation/desodiation
process. Consequently, the designed Se@NOPCC cathode exhibits a remarkable
reversible capacity of 646 mAh g–1 at 0.05 A g–1 and a long cycling life with 83.8% capacity retention
over 1600 cycles at 1.0 A g–1. This work offers
a possibility for building stable Na–Se batteries and will
also encourage more investigations on the combination of energy application
and biomass materials.