Biomass Derived High Areal and Specific Capacity Hard Carbon Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Sodium-ion battery (NIB) technology has drawn increased attention for stationary storage applications owing to its potential in facilitating the transition to a world powered by renewables, mainly due to sodium’s vast elemental abundance, lower costs, and suitable redox potential. Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to realize practical NIBs due to the lack of low-cost and high-performance electrode materials with sufficient power densities, cycling stability, and long life. This work examines the potential of sustainable hard carbons synthesized from the thermal transformation of readily available macadamia nutshell biomass to achieve NIBs with high specific and areal capacities. A comprehensive characterization of the hard carbons is performed to understand their structural and morphological attributes. The carbons synthesized at 1100 °C demonstrated excellent long-term cycling performance and specific capacities as high as 220 mAh/g at a current density of 10 mA/g. Furthermore, the areal capacity of 0.85 mAh/cm2 was obtained at 20 mA/g, even at low mass loadings of 4.5 mg/cm2. Based on these findings, the hard carbons prepared in this work are likely to be a promising candidate for the negative electrode in practical Na-ion batteries for grid-level energy storage.

Structure and function of hard carbon negative electrodes for sodium-ion batteries

“…Bearing in mind the increasing environmental concerns surrounding the manufacturing sector, there has been growing interest to improve sustainability [32] in the production of such carbonaceous materials especially using waste or biomass as precursors. Biomass materials such as algal blooms [33], starch [34], caltrop shell [35], waste tea [36], pistachio nut shell [37], rice husk [38], garlic peel [27], apple biowaste [39], and macadamia nut shell [2] among others have been successfully used for the synthesis of hard carbon.…”

“…As an example, Raman data of hard carbons synthesised from macadamia nutshell biomass at 700, 900, and 1100 • C is shown in figure 3(d) [2]. The I D /I G ratio was calculated by fitting Voigt functions and was found to increase from 0.76 for the hard carbon synthesised at 700 • C to 0.98 for the one synthesised at 1100 • C. The crystallite size of the graphitic domains in these hard carbons based on the (002) graphite reflections in XRD data were calculated to be in the 10-13 Å range.…”

“…solar and wind energy generation is likely to cause grid instability [1]. As a result, the widespread integration/adoption of energy from renewable resources relies on low-cost, scalable, and stable storage systems [2]. In this context, electrochemical energy storage in battery systems is among the leading technologies for providing the large-scale energy storage capacity necessary to facilitate the transition from fossil-fuel-based energy to renewable energy [3].…”

Natural Porous Carbon Derived from Popped Rice as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

“…Recently, amorphous carbon materials with interconnected porous networks have been seen as promising candidates for various storage applications in the electrochemical energy community (i.e., lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and supercapacitors, etc. [21][22][23]). The special attractiveness of the interconnected porous networks is in the ability of mass mobilization and accessibility within porous structures [24].…”

Hard Carbon Derived from Avocado Peels as a High-Capacity, High-Performance Anode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

“…4,5 Hard carbon, in particular, is especially environmentally and economically advantageous since it is predominately produced by biomass and residues, including fruit peels [6][7][8][9] and nut shells. [10][11][12] However, the methodology of obtaining hard carbon could be detrimental to its economic and environmental impact, remarkably due to activation steps and high carbonization temperatures. 13 The activation method usually consists of soaking the precursor source in an alkaline or acid solution before carbonization with the aim to modify the porosity and surface properties of the hard carbon.…”