Biomass-derived N-doped lamellar hierarchically porous carbon for high-performance Li–Se batteries

Abstract

Lithium–selenium (Li–Se) batteries have garnered significant attention recently due to their high energy density. However, selenium cathodes still face challenges such as poor conductivity and severe volume expansion. In this study, we designed a novel two-dimensional nitrogen-doped lamellar porous carbon/selenium composite cathode material (Se@NLPC-P) for high performance Li–Se batteries. Our results show that the lamellar structure assembled from biomass-derived stacked nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets possesses a high specific surface area (923 m² g⁻¹), hierarchically micro/mesoporous structure, and high selenium loading (63.3 wt%), enabling strong anchoring capability for selenium species and accelerated ion/electron transport. Consequently, the Se@NLPC-P cathode retains a reversible capacity of 578 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.5 C after 500 cycles, exhibiting superior rate performance and rapid reaction kinetics. This design of biomass-derived lamellar porous carbon hosts via a molecular structure-directing strategy provides new insights for enhanced performance of Li–Se batteries.