Designing hard carbon microsphere structure via halogenation amination and oxidative polymerization reactions for sodium ion insertion mechanism investigation

Hard carbon as a negative electrode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) has great commercial potential and has been widely studied. The sodium-ion intercalation in graphite domains and the filling of closed pores in the low voltage platform region still remain a subject of controversy. We have successfully constructed hard carbon materials with a pseudo-graphitic structure by using polymerizable p-phenylenediamine and dichloromethane as carbon sources. This was achieved by a halogenated amination reaction and oxidative polymerization. It was found that the capacity of hard carbon materials mainly originates from intercalation into graphite domains. The study found that the prepared hard carbon could store 339.33 mAh g−1 of sodium in a reversible way at a current density of 25 mA g−1, and it had an initial coulomb efficiency of 80.23%. It even maintained a reversible sodium storage capacity of 125.53 mAh g−1 at a high current density of 12.8 A g−1. Based on the analysis of hard carbon structure and electrochemical performance, it was shown that the materials conform with an "adsorption-intercalation" mechanism for sodium storage.