Elsevier

Energy Storage Materials

Volume 37, May 2021, Pages 8-39
Energy Storage Materials

Functionalized carbon dots for advanced batteries

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2021.01.020Get rights and content

Abstract

Carbon dots are a new class of carbon materials with ultrasmall size and unique physicochemical property. They have been widely studied since their discovery and have been gradually applied in various fields due to their quantum size, abundant surface functional groups, great biocompatibility, non-toxicity and photoluminescence characteristics. Recently, applications of carbon dots in the new generation batteries have also shown great potential. This review systematically summarized the research status of carbon dots in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), potassium ion batteries (PIBs), lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), etc., and discussed the applications of carbon dots in electrode materials, separator and electrolyte of advanced batteries in detail. Moreover, we also analyzed the challenges and development directions of carbon dots in batteries. This review aims to provide guidance and reference for the design and manufacture of the next generation of high-performance batteries.

Introduction

Carbon is one of the most abundant elements in nature. Carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, have always been materials of great concern to researchers and have been widely used in multifarious fields. Carbon dots (CDs) are a new class of carbon materials that stand out among the carbon family and are characterized by their quantum size, abundant surface functional groups, uniform dispersion, adjustable structure and composition, good biocompatibility, photoluminescent properties. In 2004, a group of fluorescent nanoparticles with a size of less than 18 nm were first found by Xu et al.[1] when purifying single-walled carbon nanotubes from arc smoke by electrophoresis. This new type of fluorescent carbon nanomaterial attracted more and more attention from researchers soon and a variety of synthesis methods for carbon dots have been dug out, as shown in Fig. 1. In 2006, similar carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with a diameter of about 5 nm and enhanced fluorescence emission effect were prepared by Sun et al.[2]. They used argon as a carrier gas in laser ablation of carbon targets in the presence of water vapor, and then the products gone through some treatments including surface passivation and functionalization, and the CNPs with a new name of CDs could be obtained finally. After that, they conducted a more comprehensive study on nano CDs and found that surface passivation treatment could significantly improve the quantum yield of CDs, and the quantum yield of CDs after separation and purification by column chromatography was as high as 60%. [3] Later, CNPs were obtained through a simple combustion method by Liu et al. [4] for the first time in 2007, providing a new feasible method for the preparation of CDs. Then, Zhou et al. [5] reported a new method of the electrochemical method to prepare CDs. The electrochemical method to prepare CDs was realized by using 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium perchlorate as electrolyte (dissolved in acetonitrile) and the carbon nanotube films as the negative electrode for multiple charge and discharge. Compared with laser ablation, electrochemical method has the advantages of controllable size and high purity. Subsequently, researchers conducted a more extensive study of carbon sources and methods for producing CDs, and more and more types of CDs were produced. CDs can be modified by hetero-atom doping [6,7] and surface modification [8] to improve the fluorescence characteristics and quantum yield. And CDs with different sizes and fluorescence characteristics can also be prepared by controlling reaction conditions. [9,10] At present, researchers are pursuing technical solutions that control the structure and morphology of CDs accurately, such as chiral CDs [11] and triangular CDs [12]. In addition, people also use biomass and other natural resources to prepare CDs. [13], [14], [15] This green and simple preparation method can reduce the consumption of chemicals and wastes, which is an important development direction of the economic preparation of CDs in the future (Table 1).

CDs were successfully applied to vivo biological imaging in 2009, due to their favorable biocompatibility and non-toxicity. [16] Subsequently, studies on drug delivery, [17] LEDs, [18] ion detection, [19] catalysis, [20], [21], [22] and other fields emerged in an endless stream. In recent years, applications of CDs in the field of energy storage and conversion have gradually become a hotspot, including capacitor, [23], [24], [25] solar cell, [26] Li/Na/K ion batteries, [27] and so on. Researchers have carried out a lot of studies on how to make full and effective use of the structural characteristics of carbon dots, how to control and construct high-performance composite materials with carbon dots, and how to use the unique properties of carbon dots to design advanced carbon materials (Fig. 2). Recently, researches in the field of energy storage show that both electrodes and electrolyte modified with CDs have significant improvements in coulombic efficiency, cyclic life, capacity, dendrite inhibition, etc.: (1) improving interface wettability and coulombic efficiency; (2) promoting the conductivity of electrode materials and the rate performance; (3) enhancing structural stability and extending cyclic life; (4) adjusting the morphology and structure of electrode materials to provide better lithium/sodium/potassium storage performance; (5) providing initial nucleation sites for lithium metals and inducing uniform lithium deposition; (6) promoting the ORR/OER (oxygen reduction reaction/oxygen evolution reaction) performances of metal-air batteries. [28,29]

About the reported reviews of carbon dots, most are around the carbon dots in synthesis methods, fluorescence analysis, biological imaging, and photoelectric devices. This review mainly summarized and discussed the research progress of carbon dots in terms of advanced batteries, including lithium/sodium/potassium ion batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries, metal-air batteries, and detailedly discussed the application progress of carbon dots in derivative carbon materials, surface modification and morphology control of electrode in the meantime. This review aims to provide a certain reference and basis for the application of carbon dots in advanced batteries.

Section snippets

Brief of carbon dots

There has been no unified regulation on the naming and classification of carbon dots due to the large differences between carbon dots obtained from different methods. Recently, some scholars have classified carbon dots into four types based on the difference in carbon cores (Fig. 3): [30] graphene quantum dots (GQDs), [31,32] carbon quantum dots (CQDs), [33] carbon nanodots (CNDs), [34] and carbonized polymer dots (CPDs). [35,36] graphene quantum dots refer to single-layer or multilayer

Application of carbon dots in batteries

With the continuous consumption of traditional non-renewable fossil energy, energy crisis and environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious, so the development of new renewable energy has attracted more attention. [72] Under this background, electrochemical energy storage technologies, like rechargeable batteries or Capacitors have become an important development direction of energy storage systems due to its characteristics of safety, low cost and high efficiency. [73] For the past

Conclusion and prospects

CDs show great potential in the design of electrode materials, modification of separators and electrolyte additives of different battery systems due to their unique quantum size, great conductivity, abundant functional groups and easy functionalization on the surface. Based on recent studies, we briefly reviewed the applications of CDs in advanced batteries.

When CDs are directly used as the anodes of LIBs and SIBs, their appropriate layer spacing can provide embedding sites for Li+ and Na+ and

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52074359, 51904342), Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Plan (2020JJ3048), and Innovation Mover Program of Central South University (2020CX007), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of the Central South University (2020zzts393).

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