(712d) Structural Characterization of Carbon Composites Derived from Lignin Precursors for Electrodes in Batteries

Lignin, as an abundant natural polymer, has demonstrated great potential as a feedstock for carbon composites, which could be applied as electrodes in electrochemical devices. The lack of the knowledge of the effects of the lignin precursors on the carbon composites structures hampers wider adoption. In this work, different kinds of lignin, including yellow pine (YP, softwood lignin), hybrid poplar (HP, hardwood lignin) and switchgrass (SG, grass lignin), were adopted as the carbon precursors for comparison to elucidate the relationship between feedstock source and electrochemical performance of resulting carbon composites. Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) combined with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were conducted to obtain an unambiguous understanding of the chemical structures of lignin precursors. The produced carbon composites were tested as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries. The pair distribution functions (PDFs) of samples were collected from the neutron scattering diffraction at spallation neutron source in Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The changes in the PDFs corresponds to the samples from different precursors were compared with previous molecular dynamics simulation results.