Preparation of porous carbon microspheres anode materials from fine needle coke powders for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

A large amount of fine carbon powders (graphite and cokes) are generated as the solid waste in the manufacture of carbon-based materials in industry. How to utilize these abundant powders to generate products with high value still remains a big challenge. Herein, we report the preparation of porous carbon microspheres (PCMs) employing waste non-graphitized needle coke and graphitized needle coke as the fine carbon powder representatives, demonstrating their use as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. It was found that the graphitized PCMs had a size of 8–30 μm and surface areas between 50 and 120 m² g⁻¹. When used as the anode materials, their charge capacity at the current density of 50 mA g⁻¹ was comparable to that of the commercial graphite microspheres, but they exhibited higher rate performance.