Presentation: 2025 ND EPSCoR Annual conference
October 21, 2025, NDSU Memorial Union, Fargo, North Dakota
Zinc-Catalyzed Pore Engineering of Humic Acid-Derived Hard Carbon for Sodium-Ion Batteries
Ruiqing
Zhang
Doctoral Student
University of North Dakota
Co-authors: Ruiqing Zhang, PhD Student, University of North Dakota, Shuai Xu, PhD Student, University of North Dakota, Diego Portillo, Undergraduate Student, College of Marin, Xiaodong Hou, Research Associate Professor, University of North Dakota
Session
Poster number: 90
Ballroom
Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have recently attracted increasing attention as one of the most promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, owing to the abundance and low cost of sodium resources. Among various candidates, hard carbon is considered the most competitive anode material. Coal-derived humic acid, being both abundant and cost-effective, represents an economically viable precursor for producing hard carbon. However, unmodified humic acid typically develops only limited porosity upon carbonization, which restricts its sodium storage capacity. To address this limitation, we employed zinc amalgam (Zn–Hg), where zinc serves as both a catalyst and a reactive component during carbonization. The presence of zinc promotes carbon framework reconstruction, enhances graphitic ordering, and induces the formation of micro- and closed-pore structures, which together optimize sodium storage properties. Structural evolution of the materials was systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The assembled half-cells exhibit high reversible capacity, excellent rate capability, and stable cycling performance, confirming that zinc-amalgam-modified humic acid-derived hard carbon is a viable anode material for sodium-ion batteries.