Currently, renewable and low-cost electrode materials are being intensively pursued to meet the development of sustainable electrochemical energy-storage systems. Chitin, which is the second most abundant biopolymer throughout the natural world and can be sourced cheaply from the exoskeletons of arthropods and shells of cephalopods, has many attractive properties such as renewability, nontoxicity, intrinsically fibrous structure and high nitrogen content. In this study, nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon nanofibers (NACF) fabricated by direct pyrolysis of chitin, were used as the anode material in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) for the first time. The NACF electrode delivered a high reversible capacity of 320.6 mA h g⁻¹ with excellent rate capability and long cyclability. The superior electrochemical performance can mainly be attributed to synergistic effects of the unique one-dimensional mesoporous nanofibers facilitating the transmission of electrons/electrolyte, and the N-doped amorphous nanostructure increasing electrical conductivity and number of active sites. Furthermore, a sodium-ion full cell was constructed by coupling the NACF electrode with a Prussian blue cathode, and it delivered 115 mA h g⁻¹ while retaining 90% of the capacity after 200 cycles. Our work will hopefully inspire the research community to explore other advanced materials with value-added attributes that can be generated by appropriate treatment of renewable bio-waste.

当前，为了满足可持续的电化学储能系统的发展，正在大力追求可再生和低成本的电极材料。甲壳素是自然界中第二大生物富集的聚合物，可以廉价地从节肢动物的外骨骼和头足类动物的贝壳中获得，它具有许多吸引人的特性，例如可再生性，无毒，固有的纤维结构和高氮含量。在这项研究中，通过甲壳素的直接热解制备的氮掺杂非晶碳纳米纤维（NACF）首次被用作钠离子电池（SIB）的阳极材料。NACF电极可提供320.6 mA h g ^-1的高可逆容量具有出色的速率能力和长循环能力。优异的电化学性能主要可归因于独特的一维介孔纳米纤维的协同效应，该介电纳米纤维促进了电子/电解质的传输，并且N掺杂的非晶态纳米结构增加了电导率和活性位点的数量。此外，通过将NACF电极与普鲁士蓝阴极耦合来构建钠离子全电池，并且在200次循环后，它在保持90％的容量的同时递送了115mA h g ^-1。我们的工作有望激发研究界探索具有附加值属性的其他先进材料，这些材料可以通过对可再生生物废物进行适当处理而产生。