Synthesis of biomass-derived 3D porous graphene-like via direct solid-state transformation and its potential utilization in lithium-ion battery

Biomass-derived porous carbon materials have recently received considerable attention for the use in energy storage devices due to the low cost. In the work here, water-absorbing biomass of agarics has been used directly to synthesize three-dimensional porous graphene-like (3D-PGL) via a facile, economical, and eco-friendly two-step solid-state transformation process. Characterization results reveal that Fe 3+ pre-adsorbed agarics are carbonized to be uniform Fe 3 O 4 /C composite in the first step. Then the C precursor is catalyzed to be 3D-graphene in the second step by in situ-formed Fe that was reduced by C around. When assembled as anodes for lithium-ion batteries, the 3D-PGL delivers excellent cycling performance (as high as 572 mAh g −1 after 1200 cycles’ running at 0.2 A g −1 ). Furthermore, it is worth to mention that when tuning the amount of pre-adsorbed Fe 3+ , two-dimensional graphene sheet (2D-GS) is obtained.