Size-Controllable N-Doped Porous Carbon Synthesized from a Metal–Organic Framework Enables High-Performance Lithium/Sodium-Ion Batteries

Nanoporous carbon materials have attracted considerable attention as highly promising anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). In this work, N-doped nanoporous carbon (NPC) particles with different sizes are synthesized from metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) through a straightforward process. When applied as anode materials for LIBs and SIBs, these NPCs exhibit excellent performance in the storage of Li+ and Na+ ions. For LIBs, the NPC particles with an average diameter of 200 nm demonstrate retained capacities of 1503 mAh g–1 at 0.1 mA g–1 after 100 cycles and 738 mAh g–1 at 2 A g–1 after 1000 cycles. For SIBs, the NPC particles with an average diameter of 50 nm exhibit high capacities of 508 mAh g–1 at 0.1 mA g–1 after 500 cycles and 238.5 mAh g–1 at 5 A g–1 after 1000 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance of NPCs in both LIBs and SIBs is mainly attributed to the small size, nitrogen-containing, mesoporous, and microporous features. These findings indicate that NPC particles derived from MOFs offer an effective synthesis method and expand the application potential of carbon-based anode materials.