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Carbon sphere-based hierarchical architecture for electrode materials: the role of copolymer composition and pyrolysis temperature

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Abstract

We have developed a general methodology to realize surface coating and encapsulation of electrode materials in hierarchical graphite-like carbon matrix and studied how the composition of the copolymer (as the precursor of the graphite-like carbon) and pyrolysis temperature affect the performance of the electrode material. The typical anode material, anatase TiO2, has been used as an example to have encapsulated and distributed the TiO2 nanoparticles in the poly (acrylonitrile-co-styrene) matrix to form hybrid spheres (HSs) Then, the HSs are converted to TiO2/carbon anode materials after appropriate pyrolysis. The copolymers with different ratios of acrylonitrile to styrene from 3:7 to 5:5 have been synthesized, and the pyrolysis is performed in the temperature range from 550 to 850 °C. It is found that both the composition of the copolymer and the pyrolysis temperature can strongly affect the performances of the final TiO2/C anode materials. A proper design optimization is necessary to obtain the electrode materials with the desired performance. Under the optimized conditions, the capacity of the cell with the synthesized TiO2/C as the anode and Li as the reference has reached above 200 mAh g−1 at a current density of 500 mA g−1 and stays stably around 170 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from the Suisse National Science Foundation (Grant No. 200020_165917) is greatly acknowledged. The research was also supported by the Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Europe GmbH (Agreement No. SGRIKXJSKF[2017]632).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    Lu Jin & Hua Wu

  2. Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, 10117, Berlin, Germany

    Lu Jin

  3. Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China

    Hua Wu

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  1. Lu Jin
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  2. Hua Wu
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Correspondence to Hua Wu.

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Jin, L., Wu, H. Carbon sphere-based hierarchical architecture for electrode materials: the role of copolymer composition and pyrolysis temperature. J Mater Sci 54, 8226–8235 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03501-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03501-z

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