Nitrogen-Deficient Graphitic Carbon Nitride with Enhanced

Dec 10, 2017 - Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Science of Advanced Materials Program, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan...
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Nitrogen-Deficient Graphitic Carbon Nitride with Enhanced Performance for Lithium Ion Battery Anodes Jingjing Chen,† Zhiyong Mao,*,† Lexi Zhang,‡ Dajian Wang,‡ Ran Xu,‡ Lijian Bie,*,‡ and Bradley D. Fahlman§ Downloaded via SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIV on July 1, 2018 at 06:35:52 (UTC). See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.

†

Tianjin Key Laboratory for Photoelectric Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China ‡ Key Laboratory of Display Materials and Photoelectric Devices, Tianjin University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300384, China § Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Science of Advanced Materials Program, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859, United States S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) behaving as a layered feature with graphite was indexed as a high-content nitrogen-doping carbon material, attracting increasing attention for application in energy storage devices. However, poor conductivity and resulting serious irreversible capacity loss were pronounced for g-C3N4 material due to its high nitrogen content. In this work, magnesiothermic denitriding technology is demonstrated to reduce the nitrogen content of g-C3N4 (especially graphitic nitrogen) for enhanced lithium storage properties as lithium ion battery anodes. The obtained nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 (ND-g-C3N4) exhibits a thinner and more porous structure composed of an abundance of relatively low nitrogen doping wrinkled graphene nanosheets. A highly reversible lithium storage capacity of 2753 mAh/g was obtained after the 300th cycle with an enhanced cycling stability and rate capability. The presented nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 with outstanding electrochemical performances may unambiguously promote the application of g-C3N4 materials in energy-storage devices. KEYWORDS: graphitic carbon nitride, lithium ion battery, nitrogen deficiency, magnesiothermic denitriding, nitrogen-doped carbon

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and revealed that g-C3N4 could react with Li to form Li4C3N4 with a theoretical specific capacity as high as 1165.3 mAh/g, which depicts the potential application of g-C3N4 as a lithium storage materials;13 Jorge et al. characterize the electrochemical properties of g-C3N4 and commented that g-C3N4 related materials might provide an idea for the application in electrochemical fields.14 However, Yang et al. investigated the electrochemical performances of g-C3N4 as anode material in experimental and found that g-C3N4 anode material receive a low initial discharge capacity at 134.9 mAh/g and showed seriously irreversible capacity loss as high as 90% after only 7 cycles.15 In Zhang’s work, the seriously irreversible capacity loss is mainly attributed to the decomposition of g-C3N4 after being electro-

ithium ion batteries (LIBs) have attracted abundant attention in the scientific and industrial fields during the past decades, driving by the ever-growing requirements for the various portable electronic devices.1−3 Nitrogen-doped carbon with extraordinary electrochemical performance provides an attractive perspective in developing high-power and highenergy electrode materials for the next generation of highperformance rechargeable LIBs.4−6 Graphitic carbon nitride (gC3N4), a stack of one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2 hybridized carbon and nitrogen atoms, has drawn growing attention in various fields owing to its promising electric, optical, structural, and physiochemical properties as well as its cost-effective availability.7,8 In view of the layered feature with graphite, bulk g-C3N4 and layer(s) g-C3N4 could be indexed as the high nitrogen-doping graphite and graphene, respectively, arousing strong curiosity of researchers in the electrochemical energy storage field.8−12 For example, Pan et al. calculated the lithium storage properties of g-C3N4 nanotube by first principle study © 2017 American Chemical Society

Received: October 8, 2017 Accepted: December 10, 2017 Published: December 10, 2017 12650

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b07116 ACS Nano 2017, 11, 12650−12657

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ACS Nano chemical reduced by Li. At variance, Veith10 and Hankel8,9 reported that the massive amount of graphitic nitrogen in the gC3N4 should be responsible for the high irreversible capacity loss and concluded that the g-C3N4 material is not suitable if directly applied to LIBs. Thus, composite technology was demonstrated by researchers to enhance the electrochemical performance of g-C3N4 materials. Hou et al.16 reported a g-C3N4/NRGO/MoS2 nanocomposite with a discharge capacity of 855 mAh/g at a current density of 100 mA/g after the 100th cycle for lithium ion battery anode material. The mesoporous g-C3N4 nanosheets in this nanocomposite mainly served as an efficient mass transport for ions and electrolyte. Shi et al.12 exploited a 2D sandwich-type Fe2O3/ g-C3N4-graphene hybrid nanosheets constructed by porous gC3N4, which was identified to offer readily accessible channels for ionic diffusion. Li et al. developed a Zn2GeO4/g-C3N4 ultrathin nanosheets composite material and obtained a better electrochemical performance than pure Zn2GeO4 material. The large area ultrathin nanosheets g-C3N4 benefit to disperse the decomposed products of Zn2GeO4 after discharge and to accommodate the strain of the volume change of the active material during lithiation/delithiation.17 Although the electrochemical properties of above-mentioned g-C3N4-based electrodes are greatly improved by hybriding with other materials, the gC3N4 itself acts only as the dispersant and buffer agent in these composites. The electrochemical performances of g-C3N4 itself served as an active material were not improved because the compose technology is invalid to substantially change the nitrogen content and nitrogen species, which are pronounced to be the dominant reason for its poor performance.18,19 The nitrogen content of g-C3N4 is evaluated to be as high as 57.1 atom %, and three types of nitrogen species are identified in the g-C3N4 structure, including pyridinic-nitrogen, graphiticnitrogen, and bridge-nitrogen. Veith et al.10 employed a solidstate reaction to simulate the interaction between g-C3N4 and Li ion and speculated that the Li ions tend to participate in an irreversible reaction with graphitic nitrogen preferentially. The irreversible reaction with graphitic nitrogen will lead to the structural disorder of g-C3N4, which is the dominant reason for the high irreversible capacity loss. Theoretical calculations performed by Hankel et al. suggested that the pyridinic nitrogen is required for high lithium uptake and the graphitic nitrogen is harmful for the stability of the g-C3N4 material.9 Two strategies that reduce the graphitic nitride and introduce graphene backbone were put forward to improve the lithium storage capacity and cycling stability, respectively, to enable g-C3N4 materials to be suitable as an anode material. Even with the extreme structure similarity with graphite, g-C3N4 was well identified as a semiconductor with poor conductivity, which is another reason for the unsatisfactory performance of g-C3N4 electrodes. Apparently, the seriously poor conductivity for gC3N4 materials is ascribed to the massive replacement of carbon by nitrogen in the benzene ring, compared with the excellent conductive graphite with the analogue-layered structure. In view of this, nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 (ND-g-C3N4) material was demonstrated by reducing the nitrogen content via a magnesiothermic denitriding route from g-C3N4. Enhanced electrochemical performance was obtained for the ND-g-C3N4 materials, and the enhanced mechanism was investigated in detail.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The ND-g-C3N4 material synthesized through a magnesiothermic denitriding route from g-C3N4 is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Schematic of the synthesis of ND-g-C 3 N 4 from magnesiothermic denitriding of g-C3N4 and photos of g-C3N4 before magnesiothermic denitriding and ND-g-C3N4 after magnesiothermic denitriding.

When the mixture of g-C3N4 and magnesium powder was heated to 750 °C in an argon atmosphere, magnesium vapor led to a magnesiothermic denitriding reaction as shown in eq 1. The demonstrated magnesiothermic denitriding route is useful for preparing ND-g-C3N4 material. Photos of the g-C3N4 powder before magnesiothermic denitriding and the ND-g-C3N4 after magnesiothermic denitriding show that the body color of sample changes obviously from yellow to black to the naked eye, indicating the transformation from g-C3N4 to carbon doped with an uncertain amount of nitrogen. x 3x g‐C3N4 + Mg → g‐C3N4 − x + Mg 3N2 (1) 2 2 The phase structures of g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 were investigated by powder XRD technology, as shown in Figure 2a. As reported in elsewhere,20,21 g-C3N4 exhibits two diffraction peaks centered at 13.1° (100) and 27.3° (002), which are associated with the in-plane structural packing motif and the interplanar stacking of conjugated aromatic rings, respectively. After magnesiothermic denitriding, the obtained ND-g-C3N4 exhibits a broad peak at around 23°, indicating the transformation of g-C3N4 into nitrogen-doped carbon materials with a low degree of graphitization.22 In addition, a sharp diffraction peak around 25.84° that is comparable to the (002) reflection of graphite was recorded, demonstrating a layered structure. It is worth noting that this peak shows a left-shift phenomenon comparing to that of graphite, suggesting a few-layer graphene structure. Raman spectra were further employed to demonstrate the change of g-C3N4 materials undergoing magnesiothermic denitriding, as presented in Figure 2b. There are no significant Raman signals observed on g-C3N4, but two clear Raman shift peaks are detected on ND-g-C3N4. The bands at 1350.2 and 1571.1 cm−1 correspond to the the well-documented D and G bands pertaining to graphite materials,23 respectively, confirming the transformation of carbon materials from g-C3N4. The highintensity D band indicates the presence of structural defects in ND-g-C3N4 materials, resulting from the residual nitrogen atoms due to inadequate denitriding. These defects could effectively provide more Li+ sites as well as enhance the kinetics of Li+-ion transport during the charging−discharging process.24 The decrease of nitrogen and the change of structure could be further declared by FTIR, as depicted in Figure S1. Several 12651

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Figure 2. XRD pattern (a) and Raman spectrum (b) for g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4. (c) Nitrogen adsorption isotherms and the pore size distribution for g-C3N4 (c) and ND-g-C3N4 (d).

Figure 3. TEM (a) and HRTEM (b) images of g-C3N4. TEM (c) and HRTEM (d) images of ND-g-C3N4.

N2 adsorption−desorption isotherms were carried out (Figure 2c,d) to characterize the specific surface area and porosity of the samples. Both g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 exhibit a IUPAC type IV

distinct variations related to the nitrogenous component were detected in the FTIR, indicating the decrease of nitrogen level in ND-g-C3N4 in comparison to pristine g-C3N4. 12652

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Figure 4. (a) XPS survey spectrum. High-resolution XPS analysis of (b) C 1s and (c) N 1s for g-C3N4. (d) XPS survey spectrum. High-resolution XPS analysis of (e) C 1s and (f) N 1s for ND-g-C3N4.

Figure 5. (a) CV curve for the first through fourth cycle. (b) Nyquist plots for g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 electrode (inset, high frequency region Nyquist plots). (c) Rate performance for ND-g-C3N4 electrode at current density of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20A/g and galvanostatic discharge property for g-C3N4 electrode.

isotherm with a hysteresis loop of H4-type at P/P0 = 0.4−1.0 between the adsorption and desorption branches, indicating the existence of both micro- and meso-pores.11,25 The pore size distribution (the base of Figure 2c,d) of g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 were around 3.5 and 3.7 nm, respectively, suggesting that the magnesiothermic denitriding process could enlarge the pore size by remove the nitrogen atom. Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) analysis for ND-g-C3N4 material showed a specific surface area as high as 579.8 m2/g, which is about 10 times that of g-C3N4 (59.9 m2/g), suggesting more lithium storage sites. In addition, pore volume was also increased from 0.732 to 1.173 cm3/g (Figure 2c,d). The pores can act as active sites for Li to increase capacity as well. Li residing in the pores in contrast to the layers relatively minimizes the volume change during the charging/discharging process and helps enhance the cycle stability.8 Since the crossplane ion diffusion of graphene sheets is limited by their large sheet aspect ratio, the existence of the pores could facilitate high

Li mobility through the layers of the material as well, which are necessary for improving high current rate charge/discharge performance.26,27 The morphologies of g-C 3 N 4 and ND-g-C 3 N 4 were characterized by TEM, as shown in Figure 3a−d. The lowmagnification TEM image for g-C3N4 (Figure 3a) shows a sheetlike structure with a high degree of porosity. It was widely reported that the g-C3N4 synthesized by thermal condensation of urea consists of porous nanosheets due to gas evolution at elevated temperatures.28 The ND-g-C3N4 (Figure 3b) shows an extremely analogous porous sheetlike structure with g-C3N4 after magnesiothermic denitriding. In addition, it was found that the pores of ND-g-C3N4 consisted of abundant wrinkles. Highresolution (TEM) images (Figure 3d) clearly show that these wrinkles are composed of three to six layers of graphene. The thin sheets and porous morphology for the prepared ND-g-C3N4 materials might provide more diffusion channels and shorten the 12653

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ACS Nano Li+ ion diffusion pathways in the lithiation/delithiation process, leading to promising electrochemical properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was conducted to gain insight into the chemical composition of g-C3N4 and ND-gC3N4, as depicted in Figure 4a−f. There are three sharp peaks at 285.0, 398.4, and 531.8 eV in the XPS survey spectra for g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4, which are assigned to the binding energies of C 1s, N 1s, and O 1s, respectively29 (Figure 4a,d). Quantitative analysis from XPS spectra reveals that the nitrogen content for ND-g-C3N4 was dramatically dropped to 8.84 atom %, which is much lower than the initial g-C3N4 (51.4 at%), implying that the nitrogen content of g-C3N4 was declined significantly by the magnesiothermic denitriding process. From high-resolution XPS analysis, the C 1s peak of g-C3N4 (Figure 4b) can be resolved into two individual peaks centered at 285.1 and 288.3 eV, related to the CN (sp2) and the C−(N)3 (sp3) bonds, respectively.30 After magnesiothermic denitriding, a new strong peak centered at 284.7 related to the graphite-like sp2 carbon could be identified, indicating that most of the C atoms in the ND-gC3N4 are arranged in a conjugated honeycomb structure. The high-resolution N 1s spectrum of g-C3N4 can be deconvoluted into three different peaks with binding energies of 398.4, 400.7, and 404.4 eV, which are attributed to sp2 pyridinic N atoms involved in triazine rings, bridging N and graphitic N atoms in N−(C)3, and oxidized N, respectively.29 For the ND-g-C3N4, the oxidized N peak disappeared as well as the pyridinic and graphitic N peak decreased, however, a peak with higher intensity for pyrrolic nitrogen emerged (Figure 4f).31,32 Notably, the graphitic nitrogen content decreased from 23.03% to 17.8% after magnesiothermic denitriding treatment. Nitrogen speciation in carbon materials greatly influences its electrochemical performance.8,10,18,33 It has been shown that graphitic nitrogen is more prone to breakage after lithiation than the pyridinic and pyrrolic N.8,10,34 The XPS fitting shows less graphitic N moieties than pyridinic/pyrrolic species for the ND-g-C3N4, suggesting the ND-g-C3N4 may deliver promising electrochemical performance in LIBs. To evaluate lithium storage properties of the as prepared NDg-C3N4 samples, various electrochemical measurements were carried out. Figure 5a shows the first four cyclic voltammogram (CV) curves of the ND-g-C3N4 electrode at room temperature between 0 and 3 V, at a scanning rate of 0.5 mV/s. The ND-gC3N4 electrode display a typical CV curves for the initial four cycles, in agreement with other reports on carbonaceous anodes materials. A strong peak at 0.5 V in the Li-insertion process is attributed to the irreversible formation of solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) film due to the occurrence of side reactions on the electrode35 and the incomplete extraction of Li ion as the result of the lithium trap in porous electrodes but cannot release back in the first cycle, which are the main reasons for the initial irreversible capacity.36,37 This peak disappeared during the subsequent discharge. From the second cycle onward, it is important to note that the CV curves almost overlapped, indicating the stable and superior reversibility of the prepared ND-g-C3N4.38 A peak close to 0 V was also observed in the CV curves resulting from Li+ intercalation into the ND-g-C3N4 electrode.39 During the Li-extraction process, peaks around 0.25 and 1.25 can be found that are attributed to Li extraction from graphene layers and pores/defects, respectively,40,41 whereas two peaks observed around 2.6 V are due to Li binding with heteroatoms on the surface of anode materials.40,42 Furthermore, the efficient ionic transport of g-C3N4 and ND-gC3N4 anode is further supported by the electrochemical

impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results (Figure 5b). The Nyquist plot of the g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 anode both reveals a semicircle refers in the high to medium frequency region, related to the charge transfer resistance at the interface of the electrode and the electrolyte. The following sloping line response at low frequencies indicates Warburg type resistance caused by ion diffusion in the electrode.43,44 Apparently, the ND-g-C3N4 anode presents a much smaller interfacial charge-transfer and lithiumion diffusion resistances than g-C3N4 anode, indicating a favorable charge-transfer behavior with low resistance for NDg-C3N4 anode.12 Note that, even though the extremely structure similarity with graphite, g-C3N4 material delivers a huge charge transfer resistance of the g-C3N4 material due to its semiconductor characters with poor conductivity. A comparison about the electrical conductivity for g-C3N4 and ND-g-C3N4 materials was depicted in Figure S2. One can see that the electronic conductivity of the ND-g-C3N4 is about 105 times higher than the pristine g-C3N4 due to the partially graphitization after magnesiothermic denitriding, which may further ameliorate the rate capability and the power density of the ND-g-C3N4 material. The ND-g-C3N4 exhibits excellent rate performances. As shown in Figure 5c, electrochemical cycling performances of ND-g-C3N4 was initially tested at 0.1 A/g for 50 cycles and subsequently at various current densities (from 0.2 to 20 A/g) each for 20 cycles, respectively. The first discharge and charge capacities are 2627 and 1362 mAh/g, respectively, with a Coulombic efficiency of 45.7%. The irreversible capacity loss in the first cycle can be mainly attributed to the incomplete extraction of Li ion as a result of the lithium trap in porous electrodes but cannot release back in the first cycle and the irreversible formation of SEI. This result also matches the CV results in which the cathodic peaks are present in the first scan but absent in subsequent scans. From the second cycle onward, the Coulombic efficiency is improved. There was insignificant capacity fading during extended cycling. The average capacities of the ND-g-C3N4 were recorded to be 860 to 359 mAh/g for the current densities ranging from 0.1 to 10 A/g, respectively. Even for a large current density of 20 A/g, the ND-g-C3N4 still delivered 328 mAh/g, and the capacity could go back to 1121 mAh/g immediately when the current density returned to 0.1 from 20 A/g, demonstrating excellent reversibility. Amazingly, when the rate is tuned back to 0.1 A/g after rate cycling (190th cycle), the capacity achieved a maximum value of 2753 mAh/g (volumetric capacity of about 177 mAh/cm3) after 300 cycles. Compared to the original g-C3N4 which delivered only 61 mAh/ g after 100 cycles, the electrochemical performances were significantly improved. The enhanced electrochemical performances of ND-g-C3N4 application for lithium ion battery anodes are attributed to the increase of intrinsic conductivity (Figure S2) and the appearance of graphene backbone (Figures 2b and 3d), which resulted from the reducing of nitrogen content and the transformation of graphitization carbon, respectively, after magnesiothermic denitriding process.9,11 Moreover, the promotion of the pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen ratio could further improve the stability of the ND-g-C3N4 material8−10 as compared to the g-C3N4 material. Notably, the achieved reversible capacity is larger than the theoretical value of graphene (744 mAh/g) and comparable with the optimized N-doped carbon materials summarized in Table S1. The excellent electrochemical performance for the presented ND-g-C3N4 materials could be attributed to following reasons. First, the porous structure plus the high specific surface area (Figure 2d) of 12654

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monochromated aluminum (Kα radiation: hν = 1486.6 eV) anode operated at 15 kV and 12.8 mA with a resolution of 0.1 eV (beam spot size: 500 μm2). Raman spectroscopy measurements were performed on a laser Raman spectrometer (LabRAM HR, France) with a He−Ne laser (532 nm) as the excitation source. The electrical conductivity of the powder samples was measured using a four-probe resistivity tester (ST2722-SZ, Suzhou Jingge Electronic Co., LTD, China). Electrochemical Measurements. Working electrodes were prepared by mixing the prepared ND-g-C3N4 material with acetylene black carbon and polyvinylidene fluoride binder at a weight ratio of 8:1:1 in the solvent of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The obtained slurry was cast onto a Cu foil with a wet film thickness of about 150 μm and dried at 100 °C in vacuum for 12 h then compressed at 10 MPa pressure. Subsequently, CR 2032 coin-type cells were assembled in an argon-filled glovebox using ND-g-C3N4 as the working electrode, Li disks as both the counter and reference electrode, microporous polypropylene film (Celgard 2325) as separator, and 1 M LiPF6 dissolved in a 1:1 mixture of ethylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate as the electrolyte. The cells were galvanostatically charged and discharged at various current densities in the voltage range of 0−3.0 V vs Li/Li+ at current densities of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 A/g using an automatic battery tester system (Land CT2001A, China). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was carried out in the potential range of 0−3.0 V (vs Li/Li+) with a scanning rate of 0.5 mV·s−1. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were carried out over a frequency range from 100 kHz to 10 mHz with an AC signal of 5 mV in amplitude as the perturbation using a CHI660E electrochemical workstation.

ND-g-C3N4 materials can shorten the ion diffusion distance by providing defined and large electrode/electrolyte contact area and crossed channels to facilitate the Li ion accession.45 Second, topological defects (Figure 2b) and curled edges (Figure 3c) can provide more active sites for Li storage.46 Third, the high pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen (Figure 4f) located at the edges would be beneficial for adsorption of Li and cause additional Li storage sites.47 In particular, formation of nitrogen defects and dangling bonds around N dopants could provide higher Li mobility and increase the capacity of Li intercalation.48,49 As a result, these features pertaining to the ND-g-C3N4 material enable the outstanding electrochemical performances for lithium ion battery anodes. Additionally, a full cell (ND-g-C3N4/ LiFePO4) was assembled to elucidate the cycle performances of the prepared ND-g-C3N4 anode, as depicted in Figure S3. The first discharge and charge capacities are 161.3 and 133.5 mAh· g−1, respectively, with a first-cycle CE of 82.74%. During the following cycles, the CE gradually increased to 99.5%, and a stable capacity of 76 mAh·g−1 can be received after 200 cycles.

CONCLUSIONS In summary, nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 (ND-g-C3N4) material with enhanced electrochemical performance application for lithium ion battery anodes was demonstrated by reducing the nitrogen content via magnesiothermic denitriding of g-C3N4. The obtained ND-g-C3N4 delivered a high reversible lithium storage capacity of 2753 mAh/g after 300th cycle with an enhanced cycling stability and rate capability. The enhance electrochemical performances, including reversible capacity and cycling stability, for ND-g-C3N4 are attribute to the increase of intrinsic conductivity and occurrence of graphene backbone, which resulted from the reducing of nitrogen content (especially graphitic nitrogen) and the transformation of graphitization carbon induced by magnesiothermic denitriding. The presented ND-g-C3N4 materials with outstanding electrochemical performances may unambiguously promote the development of carbonbased electrode materials for applications in energy conversion and storage devices.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b07116. FTIR and electrical conductivity for the prepared ND-gC3N4 and pristine g-C3N4; summarization about the Ndoped carbon materials application for lithium ion batteries reported in references; assembling details and cycle performance of full cell (PDF)

AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding Authors

*E-mail: [email protected]. *E-mail: [email protected].

EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Sample Preparation. Nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 (ND-g-C3N4) material was synthesized by a magnesiothermic denitriding route from pristine g-C3N4. The pristine g-C3N4 was first prepared by the conventional thermal condensation of urea.20 Typically, urea was placed into a covered crucible and heated at 550 °C for 6 h in static air in a muffle furnace, with a heating rate of 2.5 °C/min. Then, 10 g of pristine g-C3N4 and 5 g of magnesium powder were mixed together and loaded into a stainless-steel crucible with a stainless steel lid. The mixture was then heated to 750 °C in a tube furnace under a flowing Ar atmosphere and was preserved at this temperature for 2 h. After cooling, the residual magnesium and the generated byproducts were removed successively with dilute acetic acid and distilled water three times at room temperature. The nitrogen-deficient g-C3N4 (ND-g-C3N4) can be obtained by vacuum drying. Sample Characterization. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded on a Rigaku (D/Max2500pc) using Cu Kα1 radiation (λ = 1.5418 Å) operated at 40 kV and 150 mA within 10−60°. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images were captured on a JEOL JSM-2100 microscope at an acceleration voltage of 200 kV. The specific surface areas were studied using the Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) method using N2 adsorption−desorption at 77 K after treating the samples at 200 °C and 10−4 Pa for 3 h using a Quadrasorb SI analyzer. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed using a Thermol Scientific ESCALAB 250 Xi XPS spectrometer using a

ORCID

Zhiyong Mao: 0000-0003-0125-3408 Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51777138, 21401139, and 21271139), Tianjin Natural Science Council (No. 15JCQNJC02900), and “Foreign Experts” Thousand Talents Program (Tianjin, China). REFERENCES (1) Goodenough, J. B.; Kim, Y. Challenges for Rechargeable Li Batteries. Chem. Mater. 2010, 22, 587−603. (2) Tarascon, J. M.; Armand, M. Issues and Challenges Facing Rechargeable Lithium Batteries. Nature 2001, 414, 359−367. (3) Di Lecce, D.; Verrelli, R.; Hassoun, J. Lithium-Ion Batteries for Sustainable Energy Storage: Recent Advances Towards New Cell Configurations. Green Chem. 2017, 19, 3442−3467. (4) Tian, L. L.; Wei, X. Y.; Zhuang, Q. C.; Jiang, C. H.; Wu, C.; Ma, G. Y.; Zhao, X.; Zong, Z. M.; Sun, S. G. Bottom-Up Synthesis of Nitrogen12655

DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b07116 ACS Nano 2017, 11, 12650−12657

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DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b07116 ACS Nano 2017, 11, 12650−12657