From natural lignocellulosic resources to commercially reliable hard carbon materials: Insights and prospects

• Lignocellulosic biomass is an ideal hard carbon precursor for SIBs. • Progress in structural design of biomass-derived hard carbon is reviewed. • We discuss the future development path of biomass-derived hard carbon. Lignocellulosic biomass-derived hard carbon has gained prominence as a promising anode material for commercial sodium-ion batteries owing to its tunable microstructure, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. However, the intrinsic heterogeneity and structural complexity of lignocellulosic biomass pose significant challenges to the large scale deployment of its derived hard carbons. This perspective summarizes recent advances in laboratory-scale research, highlights the key obstacles hindering commercial application, and outlines guiding principles for structural design. Finally, we discuss future development pathways to enable the production of low-cost, high performance hard carbon anodes, thereby accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries