Pinecone-derived biomass carbons as anodes for lithium and sodium-ion batteries by template-assisted and chemically activated approaches

• Published in: Journal of power sources 2023-10, Vol.580, p.233329, Article 233329
• Main Authors: Saikia, Diganta, Deka, Juti Rani, Lu, Bing-Jyun, Chen, Yi-Ching, Lian, Jia-Wei, Kao, Hsien-Ming, Yang, Yung-Chin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anode; Biomass-derived carbon; Lithium-ion battery; Mesoporous; Pinecone; Sodium-ion battery
• ISSN: 0378-7753
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2023.233329

Herein, a new strategy is adopted to synthesize 3D interconnected mesoporous biomass-derived carbon using mesoporous silica as the template. The facile and low-cost route assists to successfully synthesize pinecone-derived carbon using mesoporous silica KIT-6 as template. Three different chemical reagents, i.e., H3BO3, K2CO3 and KOH, are also utilized to prepare chemically activated pinecone-derived carbons separately. When treated as an anode in lithium-ion batteries, the template-assisted pinecone-derived carbon (PDC-T) provides excellent discharge capacities of 822.8 and 272.1 mAh g−1 beyond 500 cycles at current densities of 100 and 1000 mA g−1, respectively. On the other hand, the chemically activated PDC-H3BO3, PDC-K2CO3 and PDC-KOH anodes exhibit corresponding discharge capacities of 571.4, 337.8 and 365.4 mAh g−1 beyond 500 cycles at 100 mA g−1. Additionally, a full cell is constructed to validate the potential applications of pinecone-derived carbons in lithium-ion batteries with long-term cycling stability. In sodium-ion battery, the PDC-T anode delivers superior discharge capacity of 338.9 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1. The electrode provides discharge capacities of 271.5 and 103.3 mAh g−1 beyond 500 and 1000 long cycles at 100 and 500 mA g−1, respectively. The present work demonstrates an alternative route to synthesize high-performance biomass-derived mesoporous carbons for rechargeable batteries. [Display omitted] •Pinecone-derived carbon is synthesized using mesoporous silica KIT-6 hard template.•Chemically activated pinecone-derived carbons are prepared using H3BO3, K2CO3 and KOH.•Template-assisted pinecone carbon provides excellent capacity of 822.8 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 100 mA g−1 in LIB.•H3BO3 activated pinecone carbon delivers capacity of 571.4 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 100 mA g−1.•In SIBs, template-assisted pinecone carbon delivers discharge capacity of 338.9 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1.