Carbodiimides: new materials applied as anode electrodes for sodium and lithium ion batteries

Conversely to the electrochemical inactivity claimed for MnNCN, we report here that transition-metal carbodiimides, MNCN (M = Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni), are electrochemically active materials for electrochemical energy-storage systems. They exhibit high reversible capacities (200-800 mA h g(-1)) for lithium and sodium ion batteries, stored by means of conversion reactions.