Bimetallic MOFs-Derived Hollow Carbon Spheres Assembled by Sheets for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted extensive attention as precursors for the preparation of carbon-based materials due to their highly controllable composition, structure, and pore size distribution. However, there are few reports of MOFs using p-phenylenediamine (pPD) as the organic ligand. In this work, we report the preparation of a bimetallic MOF (CoCu-pPD) with pPD as the organic ligand, and its derived hollow carbon spheres (BMHCS). CoCu-pPD exhibits a hollow spherical structure assembled by nanosheets. BMHCS inherits the unique hollow spherical structure of CoCu-pPD, which also shows a large specific surface area and heteroatom doping. When using as the anode of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), BMHCS exhibits excellent cycling stability (the capacity of 306 mA h g(−1) after 300 cycles at a current density of 1 A g(−1) and the capacity retention rate of 90%) and rate capability (the sodium storage capacity of 240 mA h g(−1) at 5 A g(−1)). This work not only provides a strategy for the preparation of pPD-based bimetallic-MOFs, but also enhances the thermal stability of the pPD-based MOFs. In addition, this work also offers a new case for the morphology control of assembled carbon materials and has achieved excellent performance in the field of SIBs.