Citation: Weiyan Hou, Zonglin Yi, Hongtao Yu, Wanru Jia, Liqin Dai, Junjie Yang, Jingpeng Chen, Lijing Xie, Fangyuan Su, Cheng-Meng Chen. Fractal dimension revealed from SAXS as a descriptor of structural disorder in hard carbon anodes of sodium ion battery[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(7): 111124. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111124 shu

Fractal dimension revealed from SAXS as a descriptor of structural disorder in hard carbon anodes of sodium ion battery

Weiyan Hou ^{a, b, c, 1} ,
Zonglin Yi ^{a, b, 1} ,
Hongtao Yu ^{a, b, c} ,
Wanru Jia ^{a, b, c} ,
Liqin Dai ^{a, b} ,
Junjie Yang ^{a, b} ,
Jingpeng Chen ^{a, b} ,
Lijing Xie ^{a, b, *,} ,
Fangyuan Su ^{a, b, *,} ,
Cheng-Meng Chen ^{a, b, d, *,}

a.
Shanxi Key Laboratory of Carbon Materials, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China
b.
CAS Key Laboratory of Carbon Materials, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, China
c.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
d.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

xielijing@sxicc.ac.cn

sufangyuan@sxicc.ac.cn

chencm@sxicc.ac.cn

Received Date: 20 January 2025
Revised Date: 18 March 2025
Accepted Date: 20 March 2025
Available Online: 26 March 2025

Figures(8)

The disordered structure plays an essential role in high capacity of hard carbon. However, the lack of universal descriptor for characterizing the structural disorder of hard carbon limit advancements in understanding and optimizing its sodium diffusion performance in sodium ion batteries (SIBs). Herein, fractal dimension (D) revealed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is identified as a descriptor of hard carbon’s structural disorder under the data-driven methods, correlating it with electrochemical and structural features. Porod’s law, TEM and XRD are used to determine the correlation between D and the microstructure of hard carbon. The results reveal that as D increases, pseudo-graphitic domains decrease and carbon layers become more curved, which result in more closed pores. Meanwhile, the diffusion coefficient in different potential below 0.1 V vs. Na⁺/Na suggest that D are unfavorable to sodium ions diffusion as the diffusion coefficients decrease with D increase and result in a reduce of slope capacity percentage in SIBs. D are used in analyze the sodium ion storage behavior by ex-situ SAXS, which suggests that carbon layers with larger D have more structural defects as nucleation sites. In addition, theoretical plateau capacity utilization (TCU) is proposed based on D and reveal the accessibility of closed pore of hard carbon. This work provides a foundation for bridging the gap between structural characterization and practical performances, and guiding the structural design of hard carbon with high sodium storage and kinetic performance.
- Sodium ion battery,
- Hard carbon,
- SAXS,
- Fractal dimension,
- Structural disorder
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