Development of Graphite Anodes from Coal Derived Carbon

As demand for energy storage expands, securing reliable supply-chains for raw battery materials is critical in mitigating the threats of delayed manufacturing and inflated manufacturing costs. These issues have pushed researchers and industry to consider alternative sources for traditional lithium-ion battery materials, such as graphite. Commonly available sources of graphite for Li-ion anodes include natural graphite and petroleum coke derived synthetic graphite. While many carbon sources have been studied, most require complicated processing and result in sub-par graphite anode materials. This talk highlights raw coal and coal derived materials as promising graphite sources thanks to their abundance of sp2 hybridized carbon, resulting in simpler processing, and low material costs. We show that coal derived graphite can be implemented as a lithium-ion anode, however, many chemical, microstructural, and morphological considerations are necessary to compare with commercial graphite performance. Key topics of this talk include i) the processing steps necessary for achieving high-performing coal-derived graphite, ii) chemical, microstructural, and morphological graphite characterization, and iii) comparative performance of coal-derived graphites and commercial graphite as lithium-ion anodes. Characterization of the anodes’ performance includes gravimetric capacity, initial capacity loss, coulombic efficiency, internal resistance, intercalation energetics, and pseudo-open circuit potential characterization. Emphasis is placed on the careful consideration and effects of fundamental anode properties (particle size, surface area, etc.) because they are crucial in determining the viability of alternative graphite sources for lithium-ion battery anodes.