Biomimetic-Mineralization-Assisted Self-Activation Creates a Delicate Porous Structure in Carbon Material for High-Rate Sodium Storage
Hao Zhang, Gang Huang, Longbo Luo, Dingyue Zhang, Fan Gao, Caiqin Gao, Xu Wang, Xianchun Chen, Mauricio Terrones, Yanqing Wang
Abstract
Porous carbons have shown their potential in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), but the undesirable initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and rate capability hinder their practical application. Herein, learning from nature, we report an efficient method for fabricating a carbon framework (CK) with delicate porous structural regulation by biomimetic mineralization-assisted self-activation. The abundant pores and defects of the CK anode can improve the ICE and rate performance of SIBs in ether-based electrolytes, whereas they are confined in carbonate ester-based electrolytes. Notably, ether-based electrolytes enable CK anode to possess excellent ICE (82.9%) and high-rate capability (111.2 mAh g –1 at 50 A g –1 ). Even after 5500 cycles at a large current density of 10 A g –1, the capacity retention can still be maintained at 73.1%. More importantly, the full cell consisting of the CK anode and Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 3 cathode delivers a high energy density of 204.4 Wh kg –1, with a power density of 2828.2 W kg –1 . Such outstanding performance of the CK anode is attributed to (1) hierarchical pores, oxygen doping, and defects that pave the way for the transportation and storage of Na +, further enhancing ICE; (2) a high-proportion NaF-based solid-electrolyte-interphase (SEI) layer that facilitates Na + storage kinetics in ether-based electrolytes; and (3) ether-based electrolytes that determine Na + storage kinetics further to dominate the performance of SIBs. These results provide compelling evidence for the promising potential of our synthetic strategy in the development of carbon-based materials and ether-based electrolytes for electrochemical energy storage.