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Understanding of the capacity contribution of carbon in phosphorus-carbon composites for high-performance anodes in lithium ion batteries

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Abstract

Phosphorus has recently received extensive attention as a promising anode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity of 2,596 mAh·g–1. To develop high-performance phosphorus anodes for LIBs, carbon materials have been hybridized with phosphorus (P-C) to improve dispersion and conductivity. However, the specific capacity, rate capability, and cycling stability of P-C anodes are still less than satisfactory for practical applications. Furthermore, the exact effects of the carbon support on the electrochemical performance of the P-C anodes are not fully understood. Herein, a series of xP-yC anode materials for LIBs were prepared by a simple and efficient ball-milling method. 6P-4C and 3P-7C were found to be optimum mass ratios of x/y, and delivered initial discharge capacities of 1,803.5 and 1,585.3·mAh·g–1, respectively, at 0.1 C in the voltage range 0.02–2 V, with an initial capacity retention of 68.3% over 200 cycles (more than 4 months cycling life) and 40.8% over 450 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance of the 6P-4C and 3P-7C samples was attributed to a synergistic effect from both the adsorbed P and carbon.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for financial support from the Gobal Challenge Program grant (University of wollongong), Australia Auto CRC 2020, Creative Research Initiative (NRF), and National Science Foundation (No. NSF-CMMI-1400274). The autors also want to thank Ms. Donghua Han, and Mr. Boyang Ruan for their great help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Jiantie Xu, Jianmin Ma, Yuhai Dou, Huakun Liu & Shixue Dou

  2. School of Energy and Chemical Engineering/Low-Dimensional Carbon Materials Center, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), UNIST-gil 50, Ulsan, 689-897, Republic of Korea

    In-Yup Jeon, Seok-Jin Kim, Jeong-Min Seo & Jong-Beom Baek

  3. Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Jiantie Xu & Liming Dai

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  1. Jiantie Xu
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  2. In-Yup Jeon
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  8. Shixue Dou
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  9. Jong-Beom Baek
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  10. Liming Dai
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Correspondence to Shixue Dou, Jong-Beom Baek or Liming Dai.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Understanding of the capacity contribution of carbon in phosphorus-carbon composites for high-performance anodes in lithium ion batteries

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Xu, J., Jeon, IY., Ma, J. et al. Understanding of the capacity contribution of carbon in phosphorus-carbon composites for high-performance anodes in lithium ion batteries. Nano Res. 10, 1268–1281 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1383-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1383-4

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