Nanoscale engineering of nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber aerogels for enhanced lithium ion storage

We developed a unique industrial-scale sustainable biomass conversion strategy for the synthesis of multifunctional, three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanofiber (CNF) aerogels with hierarchical porosity. The above aerogels were also highly nitrogen-doped through pyrolysis of bamboo cellulose. The important and critical part of our synthesis strategy was to assemble the nanofibers of cellulose (NFC) from bamboo to make aerogels of controlled porosity with a hierarchical porous structure. The as-prepared CNF aerogels with abundant chemical reaction sites and three-dimensional electron and ion transport pathways were found to be new high-performance anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In particular, the N-doped CNF aerogel prepared with 1 D fibers of 50 nm in diameter as building-blocks exhibited a high reversible capacity of 630.7 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1, excellent rate capability (289 mA h g−1 at 20 A g−1) and excellent cycling performance (651 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 1000 cycles) in LIBs.