Application of a Catechol-Polyamine Co-Deposition method for synthesis of Heteroatom-Doped carbon nanomaterials

Abstract Mussel-inspired chemistry, based on dopamine and its derivatives, has attracted widespread attention in the past decade. However, dopamine and its derivatives are expensive and the modification process requires a large amount of buffer solution, which greatly hinder their large-scale application. Here, a simple, versatile and cost-effective catechol-polyamine (Cat-amine) co-deposition method, which has excellent conformal coating performance independent of the composition, dimension, and shape of the substrate, has been developed. The co-deposition takes place in water, and the thickness of the resultant conformal Cat-amine polymer coating can be precisely tailored. In addition, due to the elemental composition of the as-prepared Cat-amine coating is adjustable, N doped or N, S co-doped carbon frameworks with various shapes can be easily prepared. As representative examples, yolk-shell structured nanospheres with nickel silicate inside the hollow N doped carbon nanospheres have been prepared. The composite nanospheres exhibit excellent cycle stability and superior rate capability when evaluated as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. This highly reproducible and scalable approach provides new ideas for the large-scale preparation of advanced carbon nanocomposites.