Boron-Doped Carbon Nano-/Microballs from Orthoboric Acid-Starch: Preparation, Characterization, and Lithium Ion Storage Properties

• Main Authors: Xinhua Lu, Lin Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2018-01-01
• Series: Journal of Nanomaterials
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/4987340

A boron-doped carbon nano-/microballs (BC) was successfully obtained via a two-step procedure including hydrothermal reaction (180°C) and carbonization (800°C) with cheap starch and H3BO3 as the carbon and boron source. As a new kind of boron-doped carbon, BC contained 2.03 at% B-content and presented the morphology as almost perfect nano-/microballs with different sizes ranging from 500 nm to 5 μm. Besides that, due to the electron deficient boron, BC was explored as anode material and presented good lithium storage performance. At a current density of 0.2 C, the first reversible specific discharge capacity of BC electrode reached as high as 964.2 mAh g–1 and kept at 699 mAh g–1 till the 11th cycle. BC also exhibited good cycle ability with a specific capacity of 356 mAh g–1 after 79 cycles at a current density of 0.5 C. This work proved to be an effective approach for boron-doped carbon nanostructures which has potential usage for lithium storage material.