Tailoring defects in a hard carbon anode to enhance Na storage performance

Currently, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have achieved worldwide attention as advanced energy storage systems for commercial electronics and electric vehicles. Nevertheless, low abundance and uneven distribution of lithium resources have driven awareness that LIBs might not be able to fulfill the ever-increasing demand of grid-scale electrochemical energy storage systems. To spur more research into a more abundant and much cheaper candidate, researchers in China assessed proposed sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and offered novel hard carbon anodes for more sustainable and cost-effective batteries.