Issue 1, 2020

Self-assembled Ti3C2 MXene and N-rich porous carbon hybrids as superior anodes for high-performance potassium-ion batteries

Abstract

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are attracting increased attention because of their low cost and similar energy storage mechanism to lithium-ion batteries. Considering the low structural stability and poor electrochemical redox reaction kinetics resulting from the large size of K+ (1.38 Å), we elaborately designed novel PDDA-NPCN/Ti3C2 hybrids as PIBs anodes via an electrostatic attraction self-assembly approach, while N-rich porous carbon nanosheets (NPCNs) are derived from metal–hexamine frameworks. The coupled PDDA-NPCN/Ti3C2 hybrids with stacked structure and large specific surface area could ensure intimate contact between Ti3C2 and the NPCNs to efficiently take advantage of both components and more accessible active sites. The hybrids afford enlarged interlayer spacing and unique 3D interconnected conductive networks to accelerate the ionic/electronic transport rates. Meanwhile, the robust hybrids contribute high chemical stabilities due to favorable tolerance to volume change caused by phase transformations during the fast charge/discharge process. DFT calculations further indicate that the PDDA-NPCN/Ti3C2 hybrids efficiently reduce the adsorption energy of K+ and accelerate the reaction kinetics. The hybrids possess a remarkable synergetic effect, leading to a high reversible capacity of 358.4 mA h g−1 after 300 cycles at 0.1 A g−1 and long cycling stability of 252.2 mA h g−1 with only 0.03% degradation per cycle within 2000 cycles at 1.0 A g−1. This work paves the way for further self-assembled coupled hybrids in energy storage devices.

Graphical abstract: Self-assembled Ti3C2 MXene and N-rich porous carbon hybrids as superior anodes for high-performance potassium-ion batteries

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Oct 2019
Accepted
20 Nov 2019
First published
20 Nov 2019

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 246-257

Self-assembled Ti3C2 MXene and N-rich porous carbon hybrids as superior anodes for high-performance potassium-ion batteries

R. Zhao, H. Di, X. Hui, D. Zhao, R. Wang, C. Wang and L. Yin, Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 246 DOI: 10.1039/C9EE03250A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements