Self-assembled porous carbon microparticles derived from halloysite clay as a lithium battery anode

A naturally available clay mineral, halloysite, is used as a templating agent for the preparation of porous carbon microparticles (PCMs); these PCMs have been investigated as a candidate for lithium-ion battery (LIB) anodes. The PCMs are obtained with furfuryl alcohol as the carbon precursor; we also propose a possible mechanism for their self-assembled structure. This structure exhibits a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of 329 m2 g-1, which is higher than that of halloysite (50 m2 g-1). Even after 300 cycles, the PCMs exhibited a stable reversible discharge capacity of 600 mA h g-1 when tested at 100 mA g-1. Furthermore, the presence of porous structure in PCM electrode provides surface controlled reaction, contributing pseudocapacitance (58.5%) to the total charge storage capacity