Size-Controllable N-Doped Porous Carbon Synthesized from a Metal-Organic Framework Enables High-Performance Lithium/Sodium-Ion Batteries

Nanoporous carbon materials have attracted considerable attention as highly promising anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). In this work, N-doped nanoporous carbon (NPC) particles with different sizes are synthesized from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) through a straightforward process. When applied as anode materials for LIBs and SIBs, these NPCs exhibit excellent performance in the storage of Li+ and Na+ ions. For LIBs, the NPC particles with an average diameter of 200 nm demonstrate retained capacities of 1503 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 mA g(-1) after 100 cycles and 738 mAh g(-1) at 2 A g(-1) after 1000 cycles. For SIBs, the NPC particles with an average diameter of 50 nm exhibit high capacities of 508 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 mA g(-1) after 500 cycles and 238.5 mAh g(-1) at 5 A g(-1) after 1000 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance of NPCs in both LIBs and SIBs is mainly attributed to the small size, nitrogen-containing, mesoporous, and microporous features. These findings indicate that NPC particles derived from MOFs offer an effective synthesis method and expand the application potential of carbon-based anode materials.