Issue 12, 2020

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as an anode for a highly robust potassium-ion hybrid capacitor

Abstract

Potassium ion hybrid capacitors (KIHCs) have drawn growing interest owing to their outstanding energy density, power density and excellent cycling stability. However, the large ionic radius of potassium triggers a huge volume change during continuous K+ insertion/extraction processes, restricting the development of KIHCs. Here, we report N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) for high-performance K+ storage. The NCNTs possess a hierarchical structure and N functional groups and not only offer sufficient space to relieve the volume expansion, but also provide highly efficient channels to transport electrons and ions. As a result, the NCNTs anode presents a high specific capacity and an excellent cycling stability with an average decay rate of 0.0238% per cycle (the lowest value among the reported carbon-based anodes for K-ions batteries) during 3600 continuous cycles. A potassium ion hybrid capacitor (KIHC) was also designed with the NCNT anode and a commercial active carbon cathode and achieved both a high energy/power density (117.1 W h kg−1/1713.4 W kg−1) and a long cycle life (2000 cycles at 1 A g−1). Moreover, the in situ Raman and ex situ element mapping characterization demonstrate the outstanding electrochemical reversibility of the NCNTs. This work provides a superior strategy to design low-cost anode materials with excellent K+ storage electrochemistry.

Graphical abstract: Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as an anode for a highly robust potassium-ion hybrid capacitor

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
27 jul. 2020
Accepted
28 sep. 2020
First published
28 sep. 2020

Nanoscale Horiz., 2020,5, 1586-1595

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as an anode for a highly robust potassium-ion hybrid capacitor

X. Li, M. Chen, L. Wang, H. Xu, J. Zhong, M. Zhang, Y. Wang, Q. Zhang, L. Mei, T. Wang, J. Zhu, B. Lu and X. Duan, Nanoscale Horiz., 2020, 5, 1586 DOI: 10.1039/D0NH00451K

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