Regulation of ionic conductivity and lithium affinity of porous carbon framework in Li metal batteries through oxidized nitrogen groups

While porous carbon is widely used as a metallic lithium host framework, the weak wettability of the carbon hinders its usage. For this purpose, herein, we functionalized the porous carbon with oxidized nitrogen groups by utilizing nitric acid. We found that the functionalized porous carbon demonstrated an enhanced wettability compared to its non-functionalized counterpart. Moreover, by functionalizing the carbon surface with oxidized nitrogen during lithium plating and stripping, catalyzed lithium nitride (Li3N) formed in the solid electrolyte interphase which effectively enhanced the surface morphology of lithium deposition. The electrochemical measurements showed a massive improvement in the capacitive behavior of the functionalized porous carbon and an enhanced electrochemistry performance in terms of cyclability and reversibility.