Confined red phosphorus in N-doped hierarchically porous carbon for lithium ion batteries with enhanced rate capability and cycle stability

Here, we report a nano-sized red phosphorous/biomass-derived porous carbon (P@BDPC) which is employed as anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) via a facile vaporization−condensation−conversion strategy (VCC) with tobacco stem as the carbon precursor. The biomass-derived porous carbon not only acts as the host of red phosphorus to enhance the electrical conductivity , but also minimizes the volume expansion (≈400%) during cycling. The obtained P@BDPC composite with a high red phosphorus content (62.1 wt%) delivers a high specific capacity of 1689 mA h g −1  at 500 mA g −1 with an initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 91.7% and superior rate capability of 599 mA h g −1  at 30 A g −1 . Furthermore, a high reversible capacity of 918 mA h g −1 can be retained over 600 cycles at 5 A g −1 , indicating a remarkable cycle stability. More importantly, the introduction of agriculture waste-tobacco stem contributes to building low-cost, high-performance anode materials.