Synthesis of hierarchical porous carbon from metal carbonates towards high-performance lithium storageElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7gc02841e

• Main Authors: Liang, Chu, Liang, Sheng, Xia, Yang, Gan, Yongping, Fang, Libin, Jiang, Yinzhu, Tao, Xinyong, Huang, Hui, Zhang, Jun, Zhang, Wenkui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 03.04.2018
• ISSN: 1463-9262; 1463-9270
• DOI: 10.1039/c7gc02841e

Hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) has become increasingly important in tackling global environmental and energy-related challenges. However, its wide utilization is still limited by the complicated and environment-unfriendly synthesis process. Herein, we report a green and facile strategy to synthesize HPC from abundant metal carbonates without any emission of CO 2 or/and noxious gases. The sponge-like HPC synthesized from reacting lithium carbonate (Li 2 CO 3 ) with lithium hydride (LiH) exhibits high specific surface area and porosity, enabling high-performance lithium storage. The Li 2 CO 3 -derived HPC achieves a reversible capacity of ∼1750 mA h g −1 at a current density of 0.2 A g −1 , among the highest reversible lithium storage capacities for HPCs. Moreover, excellent cycling stability and superior rate performance are demonstrated with a high capacity of 505 mA h g −1 even at 4.0 A g −1 over 2000 stable cycles. Such a rational and environment-friendly strategy might pave the way for the large-scale synthesis and utilization of HPCs in high-performance energy storage. Hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) has become increasingly important in tackling global environmental and energy-related challenges.