Research Progress and Commercialization of Biologically Derived Hard Carbon Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries

As an effective complement to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are mainly used in some low-energy-density power cells and large energy storage devices. Of the numerous anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, hard carbon is undoubtedly the most mature and currently the only commercially available anode material, but there is still a long way to go before large-scale commercialization. In order to reduce the source cost of cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries, we chose biomass materials as the precursor of hard carbon cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In this study, it is demonstrated that hard carbon can be classified into plant- and animal-derived hard carbon, and the corresponding preparation methods, structural properties, and electrochemical properties are analyzed and summarized. In this study, we also summarize several approaches reported in the literature to improve the electrochemical properties of materials. The objective is to provide a reference for improving the properties of hard carbon materials from biological sources and to facilitate large-scale commercialization of hard carbon anode materials with sodium ions.