Abstract:

Recently, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been considered as a promising candidate as a new energy storage technology in the field of energy storage owing to their high safety and low cost of sodium. Carbon anodes act as a vital role in the components of SIBs. However, the related material preparation, sodium storage mechanism research and comprehensive performance improvement are still quite challenging now. Pitch-based precursors own the advantages of low cost, high carbon content and high carbon yield, and they have been considered as potential carbon sources for the synthesis of carbon anodes in SIBs. However, direct high-temperature pyrolysis and carbonization of pitch-based carbon sources will produce highly graphitized carbon with small carbon layer spacing, resulting in relatively low sodium storage capacity. This results an unsatisfied sodium storage capacity. In recent years, many attempts have been made to solve the difficult problems of graphitization and rearrangement for pitch-based carbon sources during the carbonization process. Various strategies have been proposed, such as asphalt modification, structural design, surface modification and carbon recombination. Owing to these efforts, the sodium storage performances of the obtained carbon anodes have been significantly improved. This review summarizes the current technological progress for the preparation of carbon anodes by using pitch as carbon source in detail. We further discuss the crucial problems and possible research priorities of pitch derived carbon anodes for SIBs in future. This review may provide a deep insight into the development of low-cost and high-performance pitch-based carbon anode for SIBs and realize the high-value utilization of pitch-based precursors.

Key words: pitch, carbon anodes, pyrolysis, preparation, electrochemistry, sodium-ion batteries

摘要：

当前钠离子电池作为新型储能技术在新能源领域被寄予厚望，其中碳负极作为钠离子电池关键组成之一，其材料制备、储钠机制研究和综合性能提升颇具挑战。沥青基前体具有低成本、高碳含量、高碳收率等优势，被认为是合成碳负极的潜在碳源。然而沥青基碳源直接高温热解碳化将产生高石墨化的碳，碳层间距小，致使其储钠容量相对较低。近年来，陆续提出了沥青改性、结构设计、表面修饰、碳复合等策略来解决碳化过程中易石墨化和重排的难题，所得碳负极储钠性能得到显著提升。本综述详细归纳总结了当前以沥青为碳源制备碳负极材料的相关技术研究进展，讨论了沥青衍生钠电碳负极未来面临的问题和研究重点，期望为高性能碳负极材料的制备提供参考。

关键词: 沥青, 碳负极, 热解, 制备, 电化学, 钠离子电池