Pitch‐Derived Soft Carbon as Stable Anode Material for Potassium Ion Batteries

Potassium ion batteries (KIBs) have emerged as a promising energy storage system, but the stability and high rate capability of their electrode materials, particularly carbon as the most investigated anode ones, become a primary challenge. Here, it is identified that pitch‐derived soft carbon, a non...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2020-04, Vol.32 (17), p.e2000505-n/a
Main Authors: Liu, Yuan, Lu, Ya‐Xiang, Xu, Yan‐Song, Meng, Qing‐Shi, Gao, Jing‐Chi, Sun, Yong‐Gang, Hu, Yong‐Sheng, Chang, Bao‐Bao, Liu, Chun‐Tai, Cao, An‐Min
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anode materials
Anodes
Carbon
Crystallization
Electrode materials
Electrodes
Energy storage
Lattices
long cycle stability
Potassium
potassium ion batteries
soft carbon
Storage batteries
turbostratic lattice
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Summary:Potassium ion batteries (KIBs) have emerged as a promising energy storage system, but the stability and high rate capability of their electrode materials, particularly carbon as the most investigated anode ones, become a primary challenge. Here, it is identified that pitch‐derived soft carbon, a nongraphitic carbonaceous species which is paid less attention in the battery field, holds special advantage in KIB anodes. The structural flexibility of soft carbon makes it convenient to tune its crystallization degree, thereby modulating the storage behavior of large‐sized K+ in the turbostratic carbon lattices to satisfy the need in structural resilience, low‐voltage feature, and high transportation kinetics. It is confirmed that a simple thermal control can produce structurally optimized soft carbon that has much better battery performance than its widely reported carbon counterparts such as graphite and hard carbon. The findings highlight the potential of soft carbon as an interesting category suitable for high‐performance KIB electrode and provide insights for understanding the complicated K+ storage mechanisms in KIBs. The cycling stability of anode materials in potassium‐ion batteries (KIBs) is challenged by the large size of K+ itself. The findings not only demonstrate the promising potential of soft carbon as a category suitable for high‐performance KIB electrodes, but also provide insights into the complicated K+ storage mechanisms in carbon anodes of KIBs.
ISSN:0935-9648
1521-4095
DOI:10.1002/adma.202000505