Hard carbons from automotive shredder residue (ASR) as potential anode active material for sodium ion battery

Graphite, the most prominent anode material for Li-ion battery, exhibited very poor performance in sodium ion battery. The electrochemical intercalation of Na+ ions in graphite is impeded due to smaller interlayer spacing. Here, we have reported ASR derived hard carbon as a suitable anode electroactive material for Na-ion battery. Prepared via single step selective thermal transformation, the hard carbons contain defects, heteroatoms, nanopore, and ordered carbon zones with expanded interlayer spacing. Among all the hard carbons, the hard carbon synthesised at 1100 °C, showed better electrochemical performance owing to its improved structural and morphological properties. The electrochemical study reveals that hard carbon synthesised at 1100 °C provides initial reversible capacity of 434mAh/g at a current density of 10 mA/g with a capacity retention of 53% after 100 cycles. Issues like global warming and climate changes have made human to shift their energy choices from fossil fuels to renewable sources. Although Li-ion battery is currently dominating the energy market, yet it falls short to meet the growing large scale energy storage system (EES) demand. Na-ion battery is considered as a worthy contender for growing ESS. The hard carbon studied in this work, can be a potential candidate for use as anode active material in Na-ion battery.