Highways Construction in Amorphous Carbon Anode Enables 10C Fast-Charging Sodium-Ion Batteries

Conventional hard carbons offering high sodium-ion (Na⁺) storage capacity through closed pores formed by disordered short carbon sheets stacking, but suffer from tortuous diffusion paths that hinder rate capability in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Herein, an amorphous carbon (AC) anode capable of 10C fast-charging was successfully developed via constructing Na⁺ highways through embedding interconnected carbon sheets with large interlayer spacing into a disordered carbon matrix by a molecular cross-linking strategy. Na⁺ Highways provide direct routes that bypass the inherent tortuosity, mitigate diffusion resistance, and facilitate rapid Na⁺ access to closed pores that serve as efficient reservoirs, thereby fully unlocking the Na⁺ storage potential of AC. As evaluated in practical 1000 mAh pouch full cells, the optimized AC anode delivers a high specific capacity of 298 mAh g^{- 1} at a 10C rate, which directly enables the pouch cells to achieve a 92% state of charge within 6 min. Furthermore, the full cells exhibit excellent cycling stability, retaining 94% of their initial capacity over 1000 cycles due to the structural robustness of the AC anode. This work provides a practical design strategy for high-performance AC anodes, paving the way for the use of ultra-fast-charging SIBs in frequency control within new type power systems.