Coaxial spinning fabricated high nitrogen-doped porous carbon walnut anchored on carbon fibers as anodic material with boosted lithium storage performance.

Abstract Commercial graphite with low theoretical capacity cannot meet the ever-increasing requirement demands of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) caused by the rapid development of electric devices. Rationally designed carbon-based nanomaterials can provide a wide range of possibilities to meet the growing requirements of energy storage. Hence, the porous walnut anchored on carbon fibers with reasonable pore structure, N-self doping (10.2 at%) and novel structure and morphology is designed via interaction of inner layer polyethylene oxide and outer layer polyacrylonitrile and polyvinylpyrrolidone during pyrolysis of the obtained precursor, which is fabricated by coaxial electrospinning. As an electrode material, the as-made sample shows a high discharge capacity of 965.3 mA h g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 in the first cycle, retains a capacity of 819.7 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles, and displays excellent cycling stability (475.2 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 1000 cycles). Moreover, the capacity of the electrode material still keeps 260.5 mA h g−1 at 5 A g−1 after 1000 cycles. Therefore, the obtained sample has a bright application prospect as a high performance anode material for LIBs. Besides, this design idea paves the way for situ N-enriched carbon material with novel structure and morphology by coaxial electrospinning.