Today, many efforts have been made in biomass for high-value products. In this article, conversion of cotton cellulose to ZnO/C anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) was achieved via a simultaneously hierarchical ‘bottom-up’ assembly in a sustainable solvent system. Cotton linter was dissolved in a newly developed aqueous NaOH/zinc nitrate solution, which avoided the usage of common toxic organic cellulose solvents. What is more, the zinc salts therein not only facilitated the cellulose dissolution but were also in situ utilized as the precursor to transform into ZnO nanoparticles; thus, no additional reagents or reactions were needed. Simultaneously, cellulose was regenerated from the solution by self-assembly of its macromolecules as fibrous microspheres encapsulating the ZnO. The self-driven assembly of cellulose molecules as the building block in the solution could provide a highly porous structure as the carbon source to ensure the better performance of the anode materials than the regular non-assembled bio-derived substrate, while most importantly, no waste or by-products would be produced during the self-assembly process. The final ZnO/C composites were characterized as a LIB anode, which exhibited stable charging and discharging performance. This work demonstrated a novel process for the biomass conversion via a sustainable and efficient strategy for high-value-added materials.

如今，在用于高价值产品的生物质方面已经做出了许多努力。在本文中，通过在可持续性溶剂系统中同时进行分级的“自下而上”组装，实现了锂离子电池（LIB）的棉纤维素向ZnO / C阳极的转化。将棉短绒溶解在新开发的NaOH /硝酸锌水溶液中，避免了使用常见的有毒有机纤维素溶剂。而且，其中的锌盐不仅促进了纤维素的溶解，而且还原位存在用作转化为ZnO纳米粒子的前体; 因此，不需要额外的试剂或反应。同时，通过将大分子自组装为包裹ZnO的纤维微球，从溶液中再生纤维素。纤维素分子作为溶液中的构建单元的自驱动组装可以提供高度多孔的结构作为碳源，以确保阳极材料比常规的非组装生物来源基质具有更好的性能，而最重要的是，没有自组装过程中会产生废物或副产品。最终的ZnO / C复合材料被表征为LIB阳极，表现出稳定的充电和放电性能。