Preparation of rice husk-derived porous hard carbon: A self-template method for biomass anode material used for high-performance lithium-ion battery

A self-template is used to prepare graded porous carbon materials from the rice husks. The porous carbon material hydrothermally treated for 24h exhibits excellent electrochemical performance. The discharge specific capacity can reach 679.9 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.2C. • A self-template method is used to prepare porous hard carbon materials from the rice husks. • The biomass-derived carbon hydrothermally treated for 24 h exhibits excellent electrochemical performance. • The discharge specific capacity of biomass hard carbon can reach 679.9 mAh g −1 after 100 cycles at 0.2C. Hard carbon materials are employed as a novel anode material in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its large specific surface area, high specific capacity and stable cycle performance. In this work, we report the use of SiO 2 as a template to prepare porous hard carbon materials from the environmental-friendly rice husks (RHs), among which the porous carbon material hydrothermally treated for 24 h exhibits splendid micro-morphology and excellent electrochemical performance. The charge specific capacity can still reach 679.9 mAh g −1 after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.2C. Such significant improvement in electrochemical performance is attributed to the edges, defects and large specific surface area possessed by the porous structure.