Carbon/Pyropolymer-based Electrode Materials for Alkali Ion Storage

Carbon materials have large numbers of redox-active sites for alkali-ion storage, such as Stone-Wales, vacancy, edge, and pseudo-edge defect sites as well as extrinsic defects. The topological defects can be a redox host in anodic voltage regions, while the extrinsic defects can store alkali ions in a cathodic voltage range. Therefore, carbon materials can be a great candidate for both anode and cathode for alkali ion batteries. In this study, alkali ion storage behaviors of different carbon materials, highly defective graphene-based nanosheet (GNS), well-ordered graphite nanoplate (GNP), hard carbon series samples, and nanoporous pyropolymers which are a kind of carbon materials including numerous defects, are reviewed, and their potentials as both anode and cathode for alkali ion batteries are discussed.