Sugarcane bagasse derived carbon aerogels as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Biomass-derived carbons have been regarded as promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries due to their tunable physicochemical properties, economic value, and environmental considerations. Nowadays, most of biomass-derived carbon materials are directly prepared through a one-step carbonization process, which may damage the inherent structure of biomass materials. In this work, hydrothermal and freeze-drying pretreatment before carbonization was employed to prepare sugarcane bagasse derived carbon aerogels, which can preserve the unique structure of the biomass material. When utilized as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, the optimized carbon aerogel delivered an initial discharge capacity as high as 380 mAh g⁻¹ at a current density of 50 mA g⁻¹. After 50 cycles, the reversible specific capacity was still maintained at 248 mAh g⁻¹.