Optimizing Hard Carbon Anodes from Agricultural Biomass for Superior Lithium and Sodium Ion Battery Performance

Multitrack Boosted Hard Carbon Anodes: Innovative Paths and Advanced Performances in Sodium-Ion Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are emerging as a potential alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries due to the abundant sodium resources. Carbon anodes, with their stable structure, wide availability, low cost, excellent conductivity, and tunable morphology and pore structure, exhibit outstanding performance in SIBs. This review summarizes the research progress of hard carbon anodes in SIBs, emphasizing the innovative paths and advanced performances achieved through multitrack optimization, including dimensional engineering, heteroatom doping, and microstructural tailoring. Each dimension of carbon material-0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D-offers unique advantages: 0D materials ensure uniform dispersion, 1D materials have short Na+ diffusion paths, 2D materials possess large specific surface areas, and 3D materials provide e-/Na+ conductive networks. Heteroatom doping with elements such as N, S, and P can tune electronic distribution, expand interlayer spacing of carbon, and induce Fermi level shifts, thereby enhancing sodium storage capability. In addition, defect engineering improves electrochemical performance by modifying graphitic crystal structure. Furthermore, suitable pore structure design, particularly closed pore structures, can increase capacity, minimizes side reactions, and suppress degradation. In future studies, optimizing morphology design, exploring heteroatom co-doping, and developing environmentally friendly, low-cost carbon anode methods will drive the application of high-performance and long cycle life SIBs.

A Review of Carbon Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries: Key Materials, Sodium-Storage Mechanisms, Applications, and Large-Scale Design Principles

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been proposed as a potential substitute for commercial lithium-ion batteries due to their excellent storage performance and cost-effectiveness. However, due to the substantial radius of sodium ions, there is an urgent need to develop anode materials with exemplary electrochemical characteristics, thereby enabling the fabrication of sodium-ion batteries with high energy density and rapid dynamics. Carbon materials are highly valued in the energy-storage field due to their diverse structures, low cost, and high reliability. This review comprehensively summarizes the typical structure; energy-storage mechanisms; and current development status of various carbon-based anode materials for SIBs, such as hard carbon, soft carbon, graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and porous carbon materials. This review also provides an overview of the current status and future development of related companies for sodium-ion batteries. Furthermore, it offers a summary and outlook on the challenges and opportunities associated with the design principles and large-scale production of carbon materials with high-energy-density requirements. This review offers an avenue for exploring outstanding improvement strategies for carbon materials, which can provide guidance for future application and research.