Porous N-doped C coated gallium nitride submicron bricks/reduced graphene oxide hybrid as high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries

Highlights: • The first design of N-doped C coated GaN submicron bricks/RGO hybrid. • The architecture related superb cyclability of the GaN-based electrode. • A possible inner mechanism correlating with the excellent performance. Porous architecture of N-doped carbon coated gallium nitride sub-micrometer bricks comprising of nanoscale carbon-coating primary nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide hybrids (GaN–NC–RGO) are firstly designed as high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The GaN–NC–RGO electrode shows excellent electrochemical performance, with the integral porous architecture and the GaN nanoparticles enhancing the reaction activity, the nanoscale NC coating and the microscale RGO hybridization facilitating electron transfer, and the submicron size of the GaN bricks improving the tap density. The GaN–NC–RGO electrode delivers high discharge capacity of 398.6 mAh g⁻¹ after 550 cycles at 0.05 A g⁻¹, and this value increases to 445.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.02 A g⁻¹. After 5 periodic rate capability testing over 400 cycles, the discharge capacity of the GaN–NC–RGO electrode can be fully recovered when reverting current to 0.05 A g⁻¹. The feasible electrode design strategy coupled with the facile fabrication approach and the impressive performances of the GaN–NC–RGO electrode may be referential for the development of high-performance GaN-based materials for LIBs.