Fast-Charging Sodium-Ion Batteries Enabled by Molecular-Level Designed Nitrogen and Phosphorus Codoped Mesoporous Soft Carbon

Soft carbons have attracted extensive interests as competitive anodes for fast-charging sodium-ion batteries(SIBs);however,the high-rate performance is still restricted by their large ion migration barriers and sluggish reaction kinetics.Herein,we show a molecular design approach toward the fabrication of nitrogen and phosphorus codoped mesoporous soft carbon(NPSC).The key to this strategy lies in the chemical cross-linking reaction between polyphosphoric acid and p-phenylenediamine,associated with pyrolysis induced in-situ self-activation that creates mesoporous structures and rich heteroatoms within the carbon matrix.Thanks to the enlarged interlayer spacing,reduced ion diffusion length,and plentiful active sites,the obtained NPSC delivers a superb rate capacity of 215 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1 and an ultralong cycle life of 4,700 cycles at 5 A g^(-1).Remarkably,the full cell shows 99%capacity retention during 100 continuous cycles,and maximum energy and power densities of 191 Wh kg^(-1)and 9.2 kW kg^(-1),respectively.We believe that such a synthetic protocol could pave a novel venue to develop soft carbons with unique properties for advanced SIBs.