Hard or non-graphitizing carbon is an important and widely used anode material for rechargeable alkali-metal-ion batteries. Professor Hong Zhensheng's team from FNU reported a new method and physical mechanism for ultra-fast systhesis of hard carbon materials on a scale of minute. The research uses a discharge plasma furnace with the action of multiple fields such as Joule heating and high pressure, which can produce hard carbon materials at a heating rate of 300-500 degrees per minute and with a holding time of only 1 minute. Based on theoretical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations, the kinetics of accelerated carbonization under the action of multiple fields is revealed from the physical mechanism. Experiments verify that anode materials for Sodium-ion batteries, made from hard carbon materials, can remain stable at 250 mAh g-1 after 3000 long cycles at 5 A g-1. The synthesis method can be universally applied and has become a new ultrafast technology of producing hard carbon with independent intellectual property rights.
Entitled “Ultrafast Synthesis of Hard Carbon Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries”, the research result was published in the top international journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA), with FNU as the first organization, Zhen Yichao, a doctoral student of FNU, as the first author, and Professor Hong Zhensheng as the only corresponding author. This project was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (general program) and Outstanding Youth Foundation of Fujian Province, etc.
(Translated by Liao Danyan/ Reviewed by Xie Xiujuan)