Tire-derived Carbon Composite Anodes for Sodium-ion Batteries

Abstract

Hard-carbon materials are considered as one of the most promising anodes for the emerging sodium-ion batteries. Here, we report a low-cost, scalable waste tire-derived carbon as an anode for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The tire-derived carbons obtained by pyrolyzing the acid-treated tire at 1100 °C, 1400 °C and 1600 °C show capacities of 179, 185 and 203 mAh g-1, respectively, after 100 cycles at a current density of 20 mA g-1 in sodium-ion batteries with good electrochemical stability. The portion of the low-voltage plateau region in the charge-discharge curves increases as the heat-treatment temperature increases. The low-voltage plateau is beneficial to enhance the energy density of the full cell. However, this plateau suffers rapid capacity fade at higher current densities. This study provides a new pathway for inexpensive, environmentally benign and value-added waste tire-derived products towards large-scale energy storage applications.