Synergistic Engineering of Hollow Nanospherical Structure and Closed‐Pore in Hard Carbons for Ultra‐Stable and High‐Utilization Sodium Storage

ABSTRACT Hard carbons are among the most promising anode materials for sodium‐ion batteries, yet synergistic architectural control across multiple scales to improve comprehensive Na + storage performances remains elusive. Herein, we propose a salt‐mediated micelle interfacial polymerization to fine nanospherical swelling/shrinkage and closed‐pore within nanoshells for excellent holistic Na + storage. Metal salts screening reveals that Mn 2+ promotes hollow sphere swelling via hydrolysis‐driven micelle expansion, while Cu 2+ oxidatively polymerizes monomer within micelles, causing shrinkage to solid spheres. The hollow architecture enables bidirectional Na + diffusion with >95% storage‐site utilization, outperforming unidirectional‐limited solid spheres with size‐dependent utilization. Meanwhile, this architecture, combined with 0D isotropy mitigates sodiation‐induced stress upon ultralong cycling. In situ salt‐induced expanded closed pores within the nanoscale shell enhance low‐potential capacity with fast kinetics. Such synergistic multi‐scale design leads to simultaneous exceptional high capacity of 324 mA g −1 , outstanding rate capability retention of 90.5% at 1 A g −1 , and unprecedented cyclic stability up to 20000 cycles with decay rate as low as 0.0014% per cycle. Negligible volume expansion (<0.0002 % per cycle) is observed for hollow spheres, nearly 15 times less than that of solid spheres (0.0026%). This work establishes fundamental design principle of multi‐scale architectural engineering for advanced hard carbon anodes.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Energy Materials
Published
2026-02-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202506523
Primary Topic
Advancements in Battery Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Synergistic Engineering of Hollow Nanospherical Structure and Closed‐Pore in Hard Carbons for Ultra‐Stable and High‐Utilization Sodium Storage

Kejie Wang, JianGan Wang, D. Liu, Fei Xu et al.
Advanced Energy Materials
Advancements in Battery Materials
article

Synergistic Engineering of Hollow Nanospherical Structure and Closed‐Pore in Hard Carbons for Ultra‐Stable and High‐Utilization Sodium Storage

Kejie Wang, JianGan Wang, D. Liu, Fei Xu, Rong Zhuang, Hongqiang Wang, Yue Ma
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hard carbons are among the most promising anode materials for sodium‐ion batteries, yet synergistic architectural control across multiple scales to improve comprehensive Na + storage performances remains elusive. Herein, we propose a salt‐mediated micelle interfacial polymerization to fine nanospherical swelling/shrinkage and closed‐pore within nanoshells for excellent holistic Na + storage. Metal salts screening reveals that Mn 2+ promotes hollow sphere swelling via hydrolysis‐driven micelle expansion, while Cu 2+ oxidatively polymerizes monomer within micelles, causing shrinkage to solid spheres. The hollow architecture enables bidirectional Na + diffusion with >95% storage‐site utilization, outperforming unidirectional‐limited solid spheres with size‐dependent utilization. Meanwhile, this architecture, combined with 0D isotropy mitigates sodiation‐induced stress upon ultralong cycling. In situ salt‐induced expanded closed pores within the nanoscale shell enhance low‐potential capacity with fast kinetics. Such synergistic multi‐scale design leads to simultaneous exceptional high capacity of 324 mA g −1 , outstanding rate capability retention of 90.5% at 1 A g −1 , and unprecedented cyclic stability up to 20000 cycles with decay rate as low as 0.0014% per cycle. Negligible volume expansion (<0.0002 % per cycle) is observed for hollow spheres, nearly 15 times less than that of solid spheres (0.0026%). This work establishes fundamental design principle of multi‐scale architectural engineering for advanced hard carbon anodes.

Advanced Energy Materials
Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Research and Development Projects of Shaanxi Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 48%
Advancements in Battery Materials
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Synergistic Engineering of Hollow Nanospherical Structure and Closed‐Pore in Hard Carbons for Ultra‐Stable and High‐Utilization Sodium Storage — Kejie Wang, JianGan Wang, et al. · Advanced Energy Materials (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS