Rice Husk Lignin-Derived Porous Carbon Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lignin carbonaceous is extracted from alkali-treated rice husk waste liquid through an acid precipitation process, and used as carbon source to prepare porous carbon in one-step and two-step methods with zinc chloride as activator at different temperatures. Then the obtained rice husk lignin-derived porous carbon has been used as anode materials for the lithium-ion batteries. After comparison, the material obtained by calcination at 500 degrees C (one-step method) has displayed excellent cycle stability and high cycle specific capacity (469 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles), much higher than the theoretical capacity of graphite. Good electrochemical performance is attributed to the unique porous structure of lignin-derived carbon material, which can shorten the diffusion distance of lithium ions and increase the contact area between electrode and electrolyte. This work provides an effective method to rationally utilize biomass waste materials, and supplies a new kind of biomass carbon anode materials for lithium ion batteries.