Graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon as an anode material for lithium battery

•Graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon was synthesized through pyrolysis.•Gaps between separated graphene sheets were “soldered” by “glue” molecules.•Graphene-coated carbon has excellent Li storage capacity cycle performance. In this work, cotton fibers and pyrene-dispersed graphene sheets were used to produce graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon as an anode material for lithium battery. The graphene sheets were wrapped around the cotton fibers by simply dipping the fabric in a graphene/pyrene-derivative suspension. And then the cotton/graphene textile was annealed at 700°C in a quartz tube furnace under Ar flow conditions. During the annealing process, the gaps between separated graphene sheets were “soldered” by “glue” molecules (aromatic molecular surfactant) to form graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon. Because of the unique electric properties of the graphene “skin” on the pyrogenic carbon, the flexible graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon showed relatively large storage capacity to lithium. Galvanostatic charge–discharge experiments also showed that the graphene-coated pyrogenic carbon electrode provided a reversible discharge capacity as high as 288mAhg−1 even after 50 cycles and thus can be used an anode material in lithium battery.