Insights on the Na+ ion storage mechanism in hard carbon: Discrimination between the porosity, surface functional groups and defects

Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) using hard carbon as negative electrode hold the promise of being low cost alternative to lithium ion batteries (LiBs). However, the Na+ storage mechanism in hard carbons is not fully understood yet and the attribution of Na storage in the sloping and plateau regions of the sodiation/desodiation curves remains still controversial. The current work employs N2, Kr and CO2 gases to correctly assess the changes in hard carbon porosity induced by different pyrolysis temperature of cellulose. The sloping capacity was found to decrease with the decrease of the specific area of ultramicropores measurable only by CO2 adsorption, while the plateau capacity demonstrated an opposite behavior. The high temperature derived carbons (> 1400 °C) present no porosity which disqualifies the attribution of plateau region to the adsorption of Na+ in the nanopores but rather the insertion between the pseudo-graphitic domains. Temperature programmed desorption coupled with mass spectrometry (TPD-MS) was performed to determine the nature and the quantity of oxygen surface functional groups followed by oxygen chemisorptions to assess the amount of carbon edge defects expressed by active surface area (ASA) values. A decrease in the amount of oxygen groups and active surface area with the increase of the pyrolysis temperature was observed which is accompanied by a decrease of the sloping capacity. These results shed light in the storage mechanisms, the sloping region being ascribed mainly to the interaction of Na+ with carbon edge defects and adsorption in the microporosity while the plateau region assigned to the intercalation of Na+ in the pseudo-graphitic nanodomains.