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Title: Functionalized Fullerenes for Highly Efficient Lithium Ion Storage: Structure-Property-Performance Correlation with Energy Implications

Journal Article · · Nano Energy
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian (China)
  3. Northeast Normal Univ., Jilin (China)
  4. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
  5. Univ. of New York, Buffalo, NY (United States)
  6. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Guangdong (China)

Here, we report that spherical C60 derivatives with well-defined molecular structures hold great promise to be advanced anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). We studied four C60 molecules with various functional groups, including pristine C60, carboxyl C60, ester C60, and piperazine C60. The comparison of these C60s elucidated a strong correlation between functional group, overall packing (crystallinity), and the performance of C60-based LIBs. Specifically, carboxyl C60 and neutral ester C60 showed higher charge capacities than pristine C60, whereas positively-charged piperazine C60 exhibited lower capacity. The highest charge capacity was achieved on the carboxyl C600 (861 mAh g-1 at 100th cycle), which is five times higher than that of pristine C60 (170 mAh g-1), more than double the theoretical capacity of commercial graphite (372 mAh g-1), and even higher than the theoretical capacity of graphene (744 mAh g-1). Carboxyl C60 also showed a high capacity at a fast discharge-charge rate (370 mAh g-1 at 5 C). The exceptional performance of carboxyl C60 can be attributed to multiple key factors. They include the complex formation between lithium ions and oxygen atoms on the carboxyl group, the improved lithium-binding capability of C60 cage due to electron donating from carboxylate groups, the electrostatic attraction between carboxylate groups and lithium ions, and the large lattice void space and high specific area due to carboxyl functionalization. In conclusion, this study indicates that, while maintaining the basic C60 electronic properties, functionalization with desired groups can achieve remarkably enhanced capacity and rate performance for lithium storage, thus holding great promise for future LIBs.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1378918
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1549809
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-21496
Journal Information:
Nano Energy, Vol. 40; ISSN 2211-2855
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A review on silicon nanowire-based anodes for next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries from a material-based perspective journal January 2020
On demand synthesis of hollow fullerene nanostructures journal April 2019
Hierarchical manganese dioxide nanoflowers enable accurate ratiometric fluorescence enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay journal January 2018