Hydrogen Stabilization and Activation of Dry-Quenched Coke for High-Rate-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have rapidly come to dominate the market owing to their high power and energy densities. However, several factors have considerably limited their widespread commercial application, including high cost, poor high-rate performance, and complex synthetic conditions. Herein, we use earth-abundant and low-cost dry-quenched coke (DQC) to prepare low-crystalline carbon as anode material for LIBs and tailor the carbon skeleton via a facile green and sustainable hydrogen treatment. In particular, DQC is initially pyrolyzed at 1000 °C, followed by hydrogen treatment at 600 °C to obtain C-1000 H₂-600. The resultant C-1000 H₂-600 possesses abundant active defect sites and oxygen functional groups, endowing it with high-rate capabilities (C-1000 H₂-600 vs. commercial graphite: 223.98 vs. 198.5 mAh g^-1 at 1 A g^-1 with a capacity retention of about 72.79% vs. 58.05%, 196.97 vs. 109.1 mAh g^-1 at 2 A g^-1 for 64.01% vs. 31.91%), and a stable cycling life (205.5 mAh g^-1 for 1000 cycles at 2 A g^-1) for LIBs. This proves that as a simple moderator, hydrogen effectively tailors the microstructure and surface-active sites of carbon materials and transforms low-cost DQC into high-value advanced carbon anodes by a green and sustainable route to improve the lithium storage performance.