Peking University, Sep 17, 2019: Recently, Professor Zou Ruqiang's group from College of Engineering made progress in boron and nitrogen codoped graphene (BCN) nanotubes. Trogtalite CoSe2 nanobuds encapsulated into BCN nanotubes (CoSe2@BCN‐750) is a new material synthesized by their research. The group illustrated its excellent storage properties as the anodes of sodium ion batteries, which was published online in Advanced Energy Materials with the title of “Encapsulating Trogtalite CoSe2 Nanobuds into BCN Nanotubes as High Storage Capacity Sodium Ion Battery Anodes”.
In recent years, Zou Ruqiang’s group has made significant progress in encapsulating metal composites into BCN nanotubes. They presented a catalyst-free synthesis of BCN, which could achieve highly efficient electrocatalysts. With in-depth study, they introduced new materials into synthesis process and successfully developed a series of BCN nanotubes for high storage capacity sodium ion battery. Invited by Energy & Environmental Science, the group published a review article on the journal in July.
Schematic representation for the synthesis of CoSe2@BCN‐750 nanotubes
Due to cheaper and earth abundance of sodium resources, rechargeable sodium ion batteries (SIBs) have been regarded as a hopeful alternative to lithium ion batteries (LIBs). CoSe2@BCN‐750 nanotubes proved to be suitable materials for sodium ion battery anodes. The CoSe2@BCN‐750 product exhibits excellent storage capability of 580 mA h g−1 at 100th cycle of SIB, better than most of the reported CoSe based anode of SIBs. Moreover, after 4000 cycles at large current density of 8000 mA g−1, the nanotubes still showed significant rate capability and high stability. The results showed that CoSe2@BCN‐750 nanotubes could largely improve storage properties of SIB.
Analyses of cells after cycling
The first author of this paper is Hassina Tabassum, a postdoctoral fellow of the engineering college, and the corresponding author is Zou Ruqiang. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals, and Changjiang Scholar Program.
Written by: Wang Yupin
Edited by: Wang Xi
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
References:
[1] Tabassum H, Zou R, Mahmood A, et al. A catalyst-free synthesis of B, N co-doped graphene nanostructures with tunable dimensions as highly efficient metal free dual electrocatalysts[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2016, 4(42): 16469-16475. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/ta/c6ta07214c
[2] Tabassum, H., Zhi, C., Hussain, T., Qiu, T., Aftab, W., Zou, R., Encapsulating Trogtalite CoSe2 Nanobuds into BCN Nanotubes as High Storage Capacity Sodium Ion Battery Anodes. Adv. Energy Mater. 2019, 1901778.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aenm.201901778
