Electrode engineering starting from live biomass: a ‘smart’ way to construct smart pregnant hybrids for sustainable charge storage devices

Abstract

Evolving the use of rich/renewable biomass into useful electrodes is never out-of-date for sustained energy storage utilization. Despite the fact that scalable electrode fabrication can be achieved by a general strategy of ‘direct calcination and then combination with extra active components’, making bio-derived electrodes with smart pregnant hybrid architectures in a controlled way still remains challenging. Here, we propose a preferable electrode manufacturing protocol, by initiating the engineering with fresh biomaterials via facile biochemical routes. As a paradigm study, fresh tiny yeasts are chosen as the raw material to build functionalized hybrid electrodes of Fe₃O₄@yeast-evolved carbon (Fe₃O₄@YE-C), which can serve as prominent anodes for high-rate charge storage devices. Systematic studies verify that the reaction time plays a key role in forming such integrated hybrid configurations. The optimal synergistic cooperation between the outer YE-C ‘reactor’ and inner Fe₃O₄ ‘nanoactives’ endows the electrodes with outstanding anodic behaviors, comprising remarkable specific capacity, prolonged cycle lifetime and superb rate capability in either half-cell or full-cell aqueous systems. Our present work confirms the feasibility of engineering electrodes starting from live biomass, thus offering a sustainable and superior route to develop advanced and applicable charge storage devices.