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Origin of fast charging in hard carbon anodes

Nature Energy volume 9, pages 134–142 (2024)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 10 January 2024

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Abstract

Transport electrification and grid storage hinge largely on fast-charging capabilities of Li- and Na-ion batteries, but anodes such as graphite with plating issues drive the scientific focus towards anodes with slopped storage potentials. Here we report fast charging of ampere-hour-level full Na-ion batteries within about 9 minutes for continuous 3,000 cycles based on hard carbon anodes. These anodes, in addition to displaying a sloped storage voltage, provide capacity at a nearly constant voltage just above the plating potential, without observing Na-metal plating under high areal capacity. Comparing the electrochemical behaviour of Li and Na in hard carbon through experimental and computational techniques, a unified storage mechanism relying on the dimensions of wedge nanopores and drawing parallels with underpotential deposition for metals is brought forward, providing a rational guide for achieving fast storage in hard carbon anodes.

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Fig. 1: Ultrafast NIBs.
Fig. 2: Electrochemical behaviours of Li and Na storage in HCSs.
Fig. 3: Quantitative Na storage mechanism analysis.
Fig. 4: Wedge nanopore kinetics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB2402500), National Natural Science Foundation of China (52122214 and 52072403), Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020006), Jiangsu Province Carbon Peak and Neutrality Innovation Program (Industry tackling on prospect and key technology BE2022002-5), and financial support is greatly acknowledged from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under the VENI grant number 18123 and VICI grant number 16122.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yuqi Li, Alexandros Vasileiadis, Quan Zhou.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy, Beijing Key Laboratory for New Energy Materials and Devices, Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yuqi Li, Quan Zhou, Yaxiang Lu, Qingshi Meng, Yu Li, Jiabin Zhao, Zhao Chen, Yaoshen Niu, Xingguo Qi, Fei Xie, Hong Li, Liquan Chen & Yong-Sheng Hu

  2. College of Materials Science and Optoelectronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yuqi Li, Yu Li, Zhao Chen, Hong Li, Liquan Chen & Yong-Sheng Hu

  3. Department of Radiation Science and Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Alexandros Vasileiadis, Pierfrancesco Ombrini, Remco van der Jagt, Swapna Ganapathy & Marnix Wagemaker

  4. HiNa Battery Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing, China

    Quan Zhou, Qingshi Meng, Jiabin Zhao, Xingguo Qi & Yong-Sheng Hu

  5. Huairou Division, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yaxiang Lu & Yong-Sheng Hu

  6. Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Maria-Magdalena Titirici

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Contributions

Y.X.L., M.W. and Y-S.H. designed this work, Y.Q.L. synthesized the carbon electrodes and carried out the electrochemical experiments and materials characterization, A.V. performed first-principle calculations, P.O. performed mesoscale phase-field modelling simulations and Q.Z., Q.M. and J.Z. prepared the 26700-type cells. Y.Q.L., A.V., Y.X.L., P.O., M.W. and Y.-S.H. wrote the paper. All the authors participated in analysis of the experimental data and discussions of the results and in preparing the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yaxiang Lu, Marnix Wagemaker or Yong-Sheng Hu.

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Competing interests

Q.Z., Q.M., J.Z., X.Q. and Y.-S.H. are employed at HiNa Battery Technology Co. Ltd. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Energy thanks Gui-Liang Xu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–42, Details of simulations, Tables 1–3, Description of Video 1, Note 1 and References.

Supplementary Video 1

The video depicts a Na atom approaching another Na atom. For distances below 4 Å, the Na atoms associate and the Na pair diffuses together for 0.4 ps.

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Li, Y., Vasileiadis, A., Zhou, Q. et al. Origin of fast charging in hard carbon anodes. Nat Energy 9, 134–142 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01414-5

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