Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, into carbo .
Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with high specific surface area show great potential for sodium storage as a hard carbon material. Herein, CNFs anchored with Ni nanoparticles (CNFs/Ni) were prepared through chemical vapor deposition and impregnation reduction methods, in situ growing on the three-dimensional porous copper current collector (3DP-Cu). The coupling effect of high-spin state Ni nanoparticles leads to the increase of defect density and the expansion of lattice spacing of CNFs. Meanwhile, the 3DP-Cu ensures a high loading capacity of CNFs and short ion/electron transport channels. As an integral binder-free anode, the 3DP-Cu/CNFs/Ni exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, which demonstrates a high specific capacity with 298.5 mAh g–1 at 1000 mA g–1 after 1500 cycles, and a high power density with 200 mAh g–1 over 1000 cycles at 5000 mA g–1. Density functional theory calculation results show that the high-spin state Ni regulates the electronic structure of CNFs, whic
Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon di
Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have been extensively studied as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries due to their high conductivity, large aspect ratio and good electrochemical stability. The low specific capacity and low first cycle efficiency of CNFs, however, have hindered its practical application. Herein, we present a facile strategy to synthesize a novel CNFs decorated with Cu/CuO nanoparticles (Cu-CNFs) using magnetron sputtering method. Cu/CuO nanoparticles were uniformly distributed on the surface of CNFs. According to the density functional theory (DFT) calculation, Cu/CuO nanoparticles d-orbitals and CNFs p-orbitals present hybridization states, and the Na+ adsorption energy of the modified CNFs decreases from − 2.14 to − 2.97 eV. The Cu-CNFs composites exhibit excellent sodium storage properties, presenting a desirable initial Coulombic efficiency of 76% and a high specific reversible capacity of 300 mAh·g−1 at 0.1 A·g−1 after 400 cycles. Cu-CNFs anode has excellent
Graphene's large surface area allows for a higher number of active sites, facilitating greater electrochemical reactions and increasing energy storage capacity in graphene EV batteries.