Tailoring the microstructure of bamboo-derived hard carbon to realize high sodium storage

Abstract

Hard carbon is regarded as a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries, while it remains a huge challenge to initial coulombic efficiency and rate performance. Numerous studies show that critical structural features in hard carbon, namely defects, crystallites, and close pores, are directly responsible for the electrochemical performance in sodium-ion batteries. Here, we employ bamboo-derived hard carbon to systematically regulate the defects and crystallites in hard carbon by introducing mechanical activation. Benefiting from ball milling, the intermediate product with a high specific area more easily transforms into hard carbon, which possesses abundant closed pores, effective interlayer spacing, and suitable sodium storage defects, helping to improve the sodium ion storage performance. As a result, the hard carbon ball milled for 20 min presents a high reversible capacity of 315.2 mA·h/g at 17.5 mA/g with an initial coulombic efficiency up to 79.3%, as well as good rate and cycling performances.

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