Thermally Assisted Conversion of Biowaste into Environment-friendly Energy Storage Materials for Lithium-ion Batteries

This study reports the thermally assisted solid-state synthesis of a cathode comprising a biowaste-derived nitrogen-doped carbon coating on LiFePO (LFP) for Li-ion batteries. The eggshell membrane (ESM), which mainly consists of collagen, is converted into nitrogen-doped carbon with good ionic and electrical conductivity during thermally driven decomposition. The ESM-coated LFP (ESM@LFP) containing pyrrolic nitrogen, pyridinic nitrogen, and oxidized pyridinic nitrogen has been motivated to improve its ionic and electrical conductivity, that promotes the movement of Li-ions and electrons on the LFP surface. ESM@LFP exhibits stable cyclability and ~16.3% of increased specific discharge capacity for 100 cycles at a current rate of 1C compared to bare LFP.