Defect-rich N-doped porous carbon derived from soybean for high rate lithium-ion batteries

Abstract Anode materials play a key role in the development of lithium-ion batteries. Soybean is a natural, plentiful, renewable and nitrogen-rich source, which can be treated into porous carbon with heavy nitrogen-doping. The as-obtained carbon material can be applied as anode material for lithium-ion batteries with promising performance. It can deliver excellent cycling performance (310 mA h g −1 in the 500 th at 2 C and 275 mA h g −1 at 4 C after 1000 cycles). The good electrochemical performance could be ascribed to the interconnected porosity with high surface area, the unique graphitic nano-crystals, and more importantly, capacitive contributions from its surface nitrogen doping and numerous surface defects.