Porous N-doped C coated gallium nitride submicron bricks/reduced graphene oxide hybrid as high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries

Porous architecture of N-doped carbon coated gallium nitride sub-micrometer bricks comprising of nanoscale carbon-coating primary nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide hybrids (GaN–NC–RGO) are firstly designed as high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The GaN–NC–RGO electrode shows excellent electrochemical performance , with the integral porous architecture and the GaN nanoparticles enhancing the reaction activity, the nanoscale NC coating and the microscale RGO hybridization facilitating electron transfer , and the submicron size of the GaN bricks improving the tap density. The GaN–NC–RGO electrode delivers high discharge capacity of 398.6 mAh g −1 after 550 cycles at 0.05 A g −1 , and this value increases to 445.4 mAh g −1 at 0.02 A g −1 . After 5 periodic rate capability testing over 400 cycles, the discharge capacity of the GaN–NC–RGO electrode can be fully recovered when reverting current to 0.05 A g −1 . The feasible electrode design strategy coupled with the facile fabrication approach and the impressive performances of the GaN–NC–RGO electrode may be referential for the development of high-performance GaN-based materials for LIBs.