title: Biomass-derived carbonaceous positive electrodes for sustainable lithium-ion storage.
abstract: Biomass derived carbon materials have been widely used as electrode materials; however, in most cases, only electrical double layer capacitance (EDLC) is utilized and therefore, only low energy density can be achieved. Herein, we report on redox-active carbon spheres that can be simply synthesized from earth-abundant glucose via a hydrothermal process. These carbon spheres exhibit a specific capacity of ∼210 mA h gCS(-1), with high redox potentials in the voltage range of 2.2-3.7 V vs. Li, when used as positive electrode in lithium cells. Free-standing, flexible composite films consisting of the carbon spheres and few-walled carbon nanotubes deliver high specific capacities up to ∼155 mA h gelectrode(-1) with no obvious capacity fading up to 10,000 cycles, proposing to be promising positive electrodes for lithium-ion batteries or capacitors. Furthermore, considering that the carbon spheres were obtained in an aqueous glucose solution and no toxic or hazardous reagents were used, this process opens up a green and sustainable method for designing high performance, environmentally-friendly energy storage devices.
authors.affiliation: George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA. seung.lee@me.gatech.edu.
authors.forename: Tianyuan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kavian
authors.forename: Zhongming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Samuel S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Suguru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noda
authors.forename: Seung Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee