Sulfur/Nitrogen Dual-doped Porous Graphene Aerogels Enhancing Anode Performance of Lithium Ion Batteries

• Sulfur and nitrogen dual-doped graphene aerogels (SNGAs) was synthesized.
• SNGAs deliver high specific capacity and excellent cyclability.
• The pyridinic N and sulfate in SNGAs leads to improved electrochemical performance.
• The designed SNGAs show potential application for high performance LIBs.

Sulfur/nitrogen dual-doped graphene aerogels (SNGAs) with a unique porous network structure have been designed through a facile and versatile one-pot hydrothermal strategy. When employed as anode in LIBs, the SNGAs with nitrogen content of 1.50 wt.% and sulfur content of 15.11 wt.% exhibit superior cycle life and rate capability. For example, a high reversible capacity of 1109.8 mAh g−1 can be obtained after 400 cycles even at a high current density of 800 mA g−1. It was discreetly demonstrated that the prominent improved performance of SNGAs can be mainly ascribed to the effect of dual-doping heteroatoms in cooperation with each other in to the graphene lattice as well as the porous nanostructure facilitating the mass transfer for both ions and electrons. Our conclusions illustrate that the strategy of dual-doped graphene aerogel may promote the potential application of graphene for high performance lithium ion batteries.

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