High capacity hard carbon derived from lotus stem as anode for sodium ion batteries

Abstract Porous hard carbons are synthesized via carbonizing lotus stems with naturally hierarchical structures. The hard carbon carbonized at 1400 °C (LS1400) delivers a total capacity 350 mAh g−1 in the current density of 100 mA g−1 and a plateau capacity of 250 mAh g−1. Even cycled at 100 mA g−1 after 450 cycles, the capacity still retains 94%. Further investigation shows that the sodium storage of LS carbons involves Na+ adsorption in the defect sites, Na+ insertion and Na metal deposition in the closed pores. However, the Na metal deposition in closed pores mainly contribute to the plateau capacity, leading to the excellent sodium storage performance of LS1400 with a large closed pore ratio of 66%. The results show that the intrinsic structure of natural biomass can inspire us to design hard carbon with large closed pore ratio as excellent anode for sodium ion batteries.