An innovative and efficient method for the preparation of mesocarbon microbeads and their use in the electrodes of lithium ion batteries and electric double layer capacitors

An innovative and efficient method for preparation of mesocarbon microbeads (MCMBs) was developed based on the dripping behavior and rheological properties of molten pitch during melt-spinning, where a string of beads was formed after the pitch was extruded from spinnerets and dropped into a receiving solvent (tetrohydrofuran or water). The pitch droplets were first carbonized, then activated by KOH or graphitized at 2 800 °C to prepare A-MCMBs or G-MCMBs, respectively, and these were respectively used as the electrode materials for electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Results showed that both MCMB-W prepared using water as the receiving solvent and MCMB-T prepared using tetrohydrofuran as the receiving solvent had a spherical shape with sizes of 1-2 μm. A-MCMB-T had a high specific surface area (1 391 m2 g−1), micropore volume (0.55 cm3 g−1) and mesopore volume (0.24 cm3 g−1), with a 30% higher specific capacitance than an activated mesophase carbon prepared under the same conditions, and its capacitance retention was significantly improved when it was used as an electrode material for EDLCs. G-MCMB-T had a high degree of graphitization (0.895) and when it was used as an electrode material for LIBs it had a high specific capacity of 353.5 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 100 mA g−1. This work reports a new preparation method for MCMBs, which could be used to prepare energy storage materials.