Abstract
Abstract Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are prospective candidates for large-scale energy storage systems cause of their abundant resources. However, unsatisfactory rate and cycling performance of carbon-based anodes present a bottleneck for the applications of SIBs/PIBs due to the large sizes of sodium/potassium ions. Herein, oxygen-doped vertically aligned carbon aerogels (VCAs) with hierarchically tailored channels are synthesized as anodes in SIBs/PIBs via a controllable unidirectional ice-templating technique. VCA-3 (cooling rate of 3 K min?1) delivers the highest reversible capacity of ≈298 mAh g?1 at 0.1 C with an excellent cycling performance over 2000 cycles at 0.5 C for SIBs, while VCA-5 manifests a superior capacity of ≈258 mAh g?1 at 0.1 C with an 82.7% retention over 1000 cycles at 0.5 C for PIBs. Moreover, their full cells demonstrate the promising potential of VCAs in applications. This novel controllable ice-templating strategy opens unique avenues to tune the construction of hollow aligned channels for shortening ion-transport pathways and ensuring structural integrity. New insights into structure-performance correlations regulated by the cooling rates of an ice-templating strategy and design guidelines for electrodes applicable in multiple energy storage technologies are reported.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2110862 |
| Pages (from-to) | 2110862 |
| Journal | Advanced Functional Materials |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| Early online date | 5 Jan 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 5 Jan 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:J.W. and Z.X. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/V002651/1), Chemical Imaging Facility at the University of Bristol (equipment funded by EPSRC under Grant “Atoms to Applications” EP/K035746/1). The authors appreciate the assistance from Dr. Cynthia Adu and Yusuf Mahadik for the set‐up of the unidirectional ice‐templating equipment. The authors also would like to thank Zhenyu Guo for accessing XRD and the supply of the PTCDA cathode and Xin Song and Gang Cheng for assistance with the SEM images. J.W. and Z.X. acknowledge the China Scholarship Council for their Ph.D. scholarships.
Funding Information:
J.W. and Z.X. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/V002651/1), Chemical Imaging Facility at the University of Bristol (equipment funded by EPSRC under Grant ?Atoms to Applications? EP/K035746/1). The authors appreciate the assistance from Dr. Cynthia Adu and Yusuf Mahadik for the set-up of the unidirectional ice-templating equipment. The authors also would like to thank Zhenyu Guo for accessing XRD and the supply of the PTCDA cathode and Xin Song and Gang Cheng for assistance with the SEM images. J.W. and Z.X. acknowledge the China Scholarship Council for their Ph.D. scholarships.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Keywords
- hard carbon anodes
- sodium/potassium-ion full cells
- sustainable aerogels
- unidirectional ice-templating