Carbon Derived from Pine Needles as a Na⁺‐Storage Electrode Material in Dual‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

electrodes. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Among the large family of cations, lithium acts as the lightest charge carrier in nonaqueous electrolyte systems. However, lithium has to face its unfortunate fate of being a limited resource in the world. Hence, sodium has received increased attention as an alternative choice mainly because of its abundance and its similar physical and chemical properties to lithium. [25][26][27] Therefore, the application of a Na + -based organic electrolyte may be a valuable strategy for the development of DIBs in the future. It is noteworthy that the state-of-the-art positive electrode materials based on sodium storage can deliver capacity values generally less than 150 mAh g −1 in potential ranges lower than 4 V versus Na/Na + . [28,29] Thus, the excellence of positive graphite electrodes will become more competitive in sodium-based DIBs.For DIBs, in contrast with the increased number of reports about anion intercalation within graphite, [30][31][32] the investigations of anodes are insufficient. In theory, anode active materials with distinguished Na + storage capacities in the low potential range can match the performance of positive graphite electrodes. Carbon materials should be a promising candidate for this task considering the safety of the devices they are utilized in, the availability of raw materials, and other factors. [33] Lu and co-workers have reported that soft carbon is a highperformance anode material for sodium-based DIBs. [34] Based on the above, we predicted that hard carbon and graphite will also become an appropriate couple. Nevertheless, researchers are plagued by the high production cost and complex synthesis procedures for synthesizing hard carbon. [35] For the sake of tackling this issue, employing biomass resources to synthesize carbon materials is an available and convenient strategy. [36][37][38][39][40] Biomass materials can exhibit multilevel, multidimensional, and hierarchical porous structures, which can be reserved in the derived carbons and are favorable for the penetration of electrolytes and ion diffusion. [41] During synthesis, they can be used as their own templates, which solves many problems (e.g., the complicated processes, long periods, expensive raw materials, and pollution involved using other materials) caused by adopting artificial templates. [42][43][44] In addition, natural biomaterials contain heteroatoms, such as nitrogen, boron, and phosphorous, that can provide extra active sites for Na + storage. In this paper, we synthesized hard carbon by simply calcining pine needles without activation ( Figure S1, Supporting information). Dried pine needles contain crude protein, fat, fiber, and various sugars (glucose, fructose, galactose, and sucrose), [45] which are all carbon sources. Moreover, pine needles are slender. The Pine needles are used as the precursor material to prepare hard carbon. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and N 2 adsorption-desorption tests are carried out to characterize the surface, crystal, and pore...

High-energy-density dual-ion battery for stationary storage of electricity using concentrated potassium fluorosulfonylimide

“…for other variants of Li-free GDIBs with intercalation/alloying reaction on the anode side, as well as reported electrode capacities, battery voltages, and molarities of electrolytes, one can show that the cell-level energy densities of reported Li-free DIBs fall in the range of 22–68 Wh kg −1 (see Supplementary Fig. 1 and Table 1 ) 9 – 11 , 13 , 17 , 21 , 40 , 41 , 43 . The highest reported value of ca.…”

“…), Cat + is typically an alkali metal cation (Na + , K + , etc.). “Material” is an active material capable of uptaking metal atoms by, for instance, ionic intercalation (graphite and other carbonaceous materials) 9 , 10 , 40 , 41 or alloying (i.e. Sn and Pb) 16 .…”

“…The highest reported value of ca. 68 Wh kg −1 was for the GDIB utilizing 1 M NaPF 6 in ethylene carbonate/ethyl methyl carbonate (EC/EMC) electrolyte 40 , 41 . It can also be demonstrated that the energy density is limited by the moderate concentrations of the electrolytes (typically about 0.3–1 M) or by the rather low battery voltages (e.g.…”

A new dual-ion battery based on amorphous carbon

“…Other carbonaceous materials, such as the mesocarbon microbead film and pine-needles-derived carbon, were also investigated as NDIB cathodes. However, due to the sluggish kinetics and large radius of cations and anions, neither the capacity nor the cycling stability was satisfactory [30,31]. In this regard, exploring a new intercalation and deintercalation mechanism beyond the existing theory for DIBs is highly desiable for further boosting the capacity, rate ability and stability of battery, yet still a grand challenge.…”

Rechargeable Dual‐Ion Batteries with Graphite as a Cathode: Key Challenges and Opportunities

“…Using Equations – or similar expressions of gravimetric cell‐level capacity reported by Dahn and Seel as well as reported electrode capacities, battery voltages, and molarities of electrolytes, one can show that the cell‐level energy densities of the state‐of‐the‐art lithium, sodium, and potassium DIBs fall in the range of 22–207 Wh kg −1 (see the Supporting Information for details and Table 1 ). We would like to emphasize that currently, no common methodology exists for reporting cell‐level energy density for various GDIBs. Many reports focus exclusively on the specific capacity of individual electrodes without a realistic assessment of energy density limits.…”