Carbon coating engineering enhances the stability of graphite anode in potassium ion batteries

Graphite forms reversible potassium-graphite intercalation compounds electrochemically. Graphite anode possesses a high reversible specific capacity (279 mAh g- 1) and an optimal low potential platform, rendering it an ideal anode material for potassium-ion batteries. However, the intercalation of K+ ions in graphite causes a bulk volume expansion of up to 61 %, resulting in irreversible damage to the structure of graphite, which leads to inferior cycling stability. In this paper, surface-oxidized graphite (OG) with reduced particle size and increased defect densities was obtained by mechanical ball milling and chemical oxidation. Composites of soft carboncoated OG (OG@PC) were prepared by soft carbon coating. The soft carbon coating can alleviate the bulk expansion caused by K+ intercalation/deintercalation in OG, thus slowing down the destruction of the crystalline structure of graphite after multiple charging/discharging cycles. OG@PC exhibits increased reversible specific capacity from 267 mAh g- 1 to 314 mAh g- 1 compared with pristine graphite at a current density of 0.05 A g- 1. Moreover, at a high current density of 0.5 A g- 1, a reversible specific capacity of 213 mAh g- 1 was achieved after 200 cycles. This work investigates simple surface carbon coating strategies to improve the cycling stability of a graphite anode of potassium-ion batteries.