Biomass derived hard carbon materials for sodium ion battery anodes: Exploring the influence of carbon source on structure and sodium storage performance

Compared to the scarce resources of lithium-ion batteries, sodium ion batteries have gradually become an ideal carrier for large-scale energy storage systems due to their abundant raw material resources. In recent years, hard carbon as an anode material for sodium ion batteries has attracted much attention. Biomass materials have become an ideal hard carbon precursor due to their natural and renewable advantages. This article evaluates the effect of hard carbon derived from three types of biomass waste (peanut shell, coffee grounds, and sugarcane bagasse) on the electrochemical performance of sodium ion batteries through pre carbonization pyrolysis method. The three materials exhibit different structures and surface functional group contents. Compared with coffee grounds and sugarcane bagasse, peanut shell-derived hard carbon has lower structural ordering and smaller specific surface area, and exhibits a higher initial Coulombic efficiency of 53.84 %. The initial reversible capacity of the HC-P electrode is 203.6 mAh/g, and the Coulombic efficiency of the electrode is close to 100 % with a reversible capacity of 127.1 mAh/g and a capacity retention of 81.4 % after cycling 100 at 1C current. The excellent electrochemical properties of HC-P can be attributed to its higher C=O bond content, larger layer spacing and lamellar structure.