Copper shape-templated N-doped carbons: exercising selective surface area control for lithium-ion batteries & beyond

Abstract

Doped-carbons are attractive alternatives to traditional graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries because they maintain the low cost and operating voltage window of carbon while providing higher capacities. Key challenges lie in creating useful doped-carbons with controllable properties and understanding which properties are most beneficial for these materials. Here, N-doped carbons are synthesized via a metal-templating platform, which provides selective control of both the chemical composition and surface area, allowing the two properties to be decoupled from one another. Copper metal particles in dendritic, spheroidal, and flake shapes are utilized as metal templates with graphitic carbon nitride precursor to create N-doped carbons. The resulting carbons are chemically similar, defined by XPS, pXRD and Raman spectroscopy. However, the surface area and pore distributions are distinctly different, as quantified by gas adsorption analysis and observed via SEM, which results in capacity differences of 100 mA h g⁻¹ when applied as active materials in lithium-ion batteries.