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Spore Carbon from Aspergillus Oryzae for Advanced Electrochemical Energy Storage
Author(s) -
Zhong Yu,
Xia Xinhui,
Deng Shengjue,
Xie Dong,
Shen Shenghui,
Zhang Kaili,
Guo Weihao,
Wang Xiuli,
Tu Jiangping
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201805165
Subject(s) - materials science , carbon fibers , composite number , chemical engineering , electrochemistry , porosity , sulfur , adsorption , spore , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , metallurgy , microbiology and biotechnology , electrode , biology , engineering
Development of novel advanced carbon materials is playing a critical role in the innovation of electrochemical energy storage technology. Hierarchical porous spore carbon produced by Aspergillus oryzae is reported, which acts as a biofactory. Interestingly, the spore carbon not only shows a porous maze structure consisting of crosslinked nanofolds, but also is intrinsically N and P dual doped. Impressively, the spore carbon can be further embedded with Ni 2 P nanoparticles, which serve as porogen to form a highly porous spore carbon/Ni 2 P composite with increased surface area and enhanced electrical conductivity. To explore the potential application in lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs), the spore carbon/Ni 2 P composite is combined with sulfur, forming a composite cathode, which exhibits a high initial capacity of 1347.5 mAh g −1 at 0.1 C, enhanced cycling stability (73.5% after 500 cycles), and better rate performance than the spore carbon/S and artificial hollow carbon sphere/S counterparts. The synergistic effect on suppressing the shuttle effect of intermediate polysulfides is responsible for the excellent LSBs performance with the aid of a physical blocking effect arising from the electrical maze porous structure and the chemical adsorption effect originating from N, P dual doping and polarized compound Ni 2 P.