Understanding the Improved Sodium Ion Storage in Wood-Derived Hard Carbon Anodes by Hydrogen Treatment

Abstract

Biomass carbon, as a renewable resource, has the ability to be a hard carbon anode material for sodium-ion batteries. Its performance is highly reliant on the surface functional group. Through our work, successfully synthesized the high-performance hard carbon by the treatment of the hydrogen reduction process of rose willow. Moreover, the effects of hydrogen reduction on the evolution of functional groups and the relevant electrochemical performance have been investigated. After undergoing hydrogen reduction treatment, hard carbons’ surface features and layer spacing were greatly enhanced. In addition, the partial surface C=O group was reduced to C-O, which led to the Na+ adsorption active sites and pseudo-capacity increased, thus improving the dynamics of the electrode process. As anticipated, the resulting hard carbon exhibited a capacity of 325 mAh g−1, with an initial coulomb efficiency (ICE) of 80.84%. This study is in an effort to demonstrate the possibility of biomass-based carbon materials in preparation for future commercial applications of sodium-ion batteries.