Comparative effects of electrospinning ways for fabricating green, sustainable, flexible, porous, nanofibrous cellulose/chitosan carbon mats as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

To develop a clean and sustainable carbon anode material derived from biomass with desirable properties for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), bio-nitrogen (N)-doped composite carbon nanofibrous mats (CNFMs) were made using natural cellulose (CE) and chitosan (CS) by means of two different electrospinning ways (single-nozzle and coaxial-nozzle) coupled with pyrolysis. The conventional CNFMs that had a CE/CS ratio of 5:5 showed the best electrochemical performance, corresponding to a high specific capacity of 327 mAh g(-1) at 100 mA g(-1), good rate performance with specific capacity of 399 mAh g(-1) at 30 mA g(-1) and 210 mA g(-1) at 1000 mA g(-1), as well as excellent cycling stability after 300 cycles. The core-shell CNFMs with a thick outer layer of CS and large average fiber diameter (316 nm) at the same CE/CS ratio had higher pyridinic-N and pyrrolic-N contents but a lower degree of graphitization and BET surface area compared to the conventional CNFMs. It was concluded that the bio-N in CS was more uniformly doped into the CNFMs by the singlenozzle electrospinning way than by the coaxial one, and thus more effectively promoted a comprehensive electrochemical performance. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Bio-nitrogen-doped composite carbon nanofibrous mats were developed from natural cellulose and chitosan for use in lithium-ion batteries, showing good electrochemical performance and cycling stability.