Rechargeable magnesium batteries (rMBs) are promising next-generation secondary batteries owing to the low-cost, high safety and dendrite-free property of Mg metal. The key of rMBs technology is to develop high-performance cathode materials. Usually, the intercalation-type cathodes such as Mo₆S₈, MoS₂ and Ti₃C₂T_x suffer from the inferior rate performance owing to the sluggish Mg²⁺ ions solid-diffusion kinetics, and the conversion-type cathodes such as S and CuS are beset with the poor cycling stability owing to the pulverization and loss of active species. Recently, sp² carbon materials exhibited considerable magnesium storage performance through an interfacial charge storage/release. Ideal carbon-based cathodes for rMBs should possess the features of high specific surface area and abundant active sites for magnesium storage, high conductivity and porous structure for facilitating charge transfer, as well as high mechanical stability. Herein, we employed the hierarchical nitrogen-doped carbon nanocages (hNCNC) featuring large surface area, abundant surface defects, coexisting micro-meso-macropores and high conductivity as the rMBs cathode for the first time, which exhibited high discharge capacity of 71 mAh·g^-1 at 100 mA·g^-1, excellent rate performance (60 mAh·g^-1 at 2000 mA·g^-1) and ultra-high cycling stability (83% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 1000 mA·g^-1). The capacitive magnesium storage mechanism is predominant in the charging-discharging process. Theoretical studies reveal that magnesium ions are adsorbed on the carbon, pyridinic-nitrogen or pyrrolic-nitrogen atoms at the edge of micropores. The excellent magnesium storage performance of hNCNC is attributed to the following reasons:(i) the hNCNC with large surface area (1590 m²·g^-1), abundant micropore defects and high content of pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen (4.49 at.%) provides sufficient active sites for magnesium storage, resulting in the high discharge capacity; (ii) the coexisting micro-meso-macropores structure, good conductivity and improved wettability via N-doping facilitate the charge transfer kinetics, and decrease the equivalent series resistance of rMBs, thereby leading to the improved rate capability; (iii) the robust scaffold of hNCNC and the capacitive-dominated magnesium storage mechanism ensure the high cycling stability. This study demonstrates the high-rate and durable performance of hNCNC in rMBs, and suggests a promising strategy to improve the rMBs performance by increasing edges and suitable dopants of nanocarbons.

Key words: rechargeable magnesium battery, cathode material, nitrogen-doped carbon nanocage, capacitive-dominated mechanism, high-rate long-life performance