Cyano groups: New active sites of porous carbon materials achieving a superior K-ion storage

Cyano groups: New active sites of porous carbon materials achieving a superior K-ion storage

Energy storage

Nitrogen

Porous materials

Synthesis (chemical)

Carbon

Storage (materials)

Potassium hydroxide

Etching

Doping (additives)

Chemical bonds

Electronegativity

N-doping can endow carbon materials with high electrochemical activity. Besides the widely validated sp2-hybridized nitrogen doping, sp-hybridized nitrogen (sp-N) atoms are also expected to be new active sites. However, both sp-N atoms and cyano (CN) groups containing sp-N are rarely produced in carbon materials presently. In this work, the first cyano groups-modified carbon materials are synthesized firstly via an interesting struggle between the chemical etching of KOH and the catalytic graphitization of Co nanoparticles in carbon frameworks. The theoretical calculations and experimental results manifest that the stronger electronegativity of CN groups renders carbon materials a higher electrochemical activity. As K+ storage anodes, the CNmodified carbon materials exhibit an obvious boost in potassium storage performance in both ester- and ether-based electrolytes. Therefore, as a new N doping form, the successful introduction of CN groups into carbon materials opens a door for exploring sp-N doped carbon materials for applications in energy storage and other fields. 2021 Elsevier Ltd

184

Carbon

2021

Gao, Xiang

Liu, Wei

Wang, Tianqi

Dai, Jingrou

Pan, Yuanyuan

Du, Yongxu

Cui, Yongpeng

Fan, Hongguang

Liu, Shuang

Jin, Yongcheng

156-166

journalArticle

86223

10.1016/j.carbon.2021.08.012