Biomass-Derived Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Aerogels from a Salt Melt Sol-Gel Synthesis and their Performance in Li-S Batteries.

An ionothermal sol-gel strategy to synthesize hierarchically porous carbon aerogels doped with different heteroatoms is presented by using biomass precursors in a scalable process. Morphologically similar but chemically different materials are used to study the influence of heteroatoms in Li-S batteries. The materials show capacities as high as 1290 mAh g(-1) in the first cycle using 50 wt % S loading. Heteroatom doping reduces the capacity fading and the polarization throughout cycling. Zeta potential measurements reveal positive surface charges for heteroatom-doped carbons and indicate attractive interactions with polysulfides causing reduced fading. A polysulfide-selective sorption study reveals strongly different adsorption behavior depending on the carbon's chemical composition. Interestingly, the polysulfide fraction is also crucial. The results indicate that improved adsorption of long-chain polysulfides to doped carbons is related to improved capacity retention.

Capacitive Deionization using Biomass-based Microporous Salt-Templated Heteroatom-Doped Carbons.

Invited for this month's cover are the groups of Tim-Patrick Fellinger (MPI Potsdam) and Volker Presser (INM Saarbrücken and Saarland University). The image shows the dynamic process of ion electrosorption: anions are attracted and cations repelled from electrically charged electrodes based on carbons with heteroatoms. This process of capacitive deionization is particularly attractive for facile low-energy water treatment applications.

Capacitive Deionization using Biomass-based Microporous Salt-Templated Heteroatom-Doped Carbons.

Microporous carbons are an interesting material for electrochemical applications. In this study, we evaluate several such carbons without/with N or S doping with regard to capacitive deionization. For this purpose, we extent the salt-templating synthesis towards biomass precursors and S-doped microporous carbons. The sample with the largest specific surface area (2830 m(2) g(-1) ) showed 1.0 wt % N and exhibited a high salt-sorption capacity of 15.0 mg g(-1) at 1.2 V in 5 mM aqueous NaCl. While being a promising material from an equilibrium performance point of view, our study also gives first insights to practical limitations of heteroatom-doped carbon materials. We show that high heteroatom content may be associated with a low charge efficiency. The latter is a key parameter for capacitive deionization and is defined as the ratio between the amounts of removed salt molecules and electrical charge.

Controlled carbon nitride growth on surfaces for hydrogen evolution electrodes.

Efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction are highly desired for future renewable energy systems. Described herein is the reduction of water to hydrogen using a metal-free carbon nitride electrocatalyst which operates in neutral and alkaline environments. An efficient, easy, and general method for growing ordered carbon nitride on different electrodes was developed. The metal-free catalyst demonstrates low overpotential values, which are comparable to those of non-noble metals, with reasonable current densities. The facile deposition method enables the fabrication of many electronic and photoelectronic devices based on carbon nitride for renewable energy applications.