Growth of highly nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon for lithium-ion battery anode

Amorphous nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets was synthesized through thermal decomposition of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid manganese disodium salt hydrate (C10H12N2O8MnNa22H2O). The as-synthesized nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transition electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The N content of the as-synthesized carbon nanosheets could reach as high as 11.77 at.%, with an especially high total of 7.94 at.% pyridinic N pluspyrrolic N. When tested as anode material for lithium ion batteries, the optimized carbon nanosheets exhibited high capacity, excellent rate capability, and stable cyclability over 600 cycles. The specific capacity was still as high as 465.8 mAh g-1 at 0.5 C after 600 cycles,with a capacity decay from the 2nd cycle of 0.05% per cycle over 599 cycles. The excellent performance of C-600 is attributed to a synergistic effect of high surface area, numerous nanopores, high thermal stability, and low charge transfer resistance