Lithium-ion batteries are being used across the world for a wide range of applications, including consumer electronics, renewable energy, and electric transportation. They have the potential to replace technologies that traditionally rely on fossil-fuel derived products and emit significant quantities of greenhouse gases. Over the entire lifespan of a vehicle, those made with lithium-ion batteries instead of gas have a drastically lower carbon footprint, but during the manufacturing step the lithium-ion batteries have a much higher global warming potential. That is because lithium-ion batteries continue to use non-renewable materials during fabrication that often have to be mined, including mineral graphite. The mining of mineral graphite and other minerals has historically resulted in significant environmental concerns and large energy consumption, and it relies on geopolitical supply chains dependent on where the specific minerals are located. For example, graphite mining in Mozambique has caused serious social and environmental impacts on local communities from increased pollution, dispossession of land, loss of livelihoods and cultures, criminalization, and silencing concerns from local activists.
Najeeb ur Rehman Lashari and co-workers at Åbo Akademi University in Finland were able to successfully replace mineral graphite with birch-derived biomass for long-life lithium-ion batteries. They prepared their carbonaceous material by first activating birch biomass with phosphoric acid and then pyrolyzing it at 1,000 °C for 12 h to create biochar. It was observed by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses to have a very high specific surface area with micro- and meso-porosity. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses showed C 1s, O 1s, and P 2p species present which confirmed phosphorus was successfully integrated into the sample, and oxygen- and phosphorus-containing surface groups facilitate charge transfer and enhance wettability. The biochar was used to prepare electrodes by mixing it with conductive acetylene black and poly(vinylidene fluoride) to act as the binder. For their experiments, glass fiber served as the separator, the electrolyte used was LiPF6 EC/EMC, and lithium metal foil was used as the counter and reference electrode.
When dos Reis et al. compared their birch carbon anodes to traditional graphite anodes, they determined that their new biomass-derived anodes had better electrochemical performance! For example, when using birch char as an anode, the lithium-ion battery had an extremely high specific capacity of 915 mA h g-1 at 1C after 1,000 discharge-charge cycles, compared to just 365 mA h g-1 at 1C after 400 cycles when graphite was used as the anode. Furthermore, the birch biomass material demonstrated excellent cycling stability of 100% after 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 cycles. Using biomass-derived anodes for lithium-ion battery manufacturing could be considered a promising alternative to mineral graphite and would help solve ongoing environmental concerns and socioeconomic issues caused by mining.
Check out the article, published in RSC Advances:
Glaydson Simoes dos Reis, Mukhtiar Ahmed, Luis O. P. Silva, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola and Lashari Najeeb ur Rehman
RSC Adv., 2026, 16, 30497–30506
About the Web Writer:
Sarah Boudreau is a 3rd year PhD candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in St. John’s, NL, Canada, studying under the supervision of Dr. Francesca Kerton. In 2021, she completed her BSc (Honours) in Chemistry at Cape Breton University, NS, Canada while researching the extraction of birch bark-oil (Maskwiomin) with Dr. Matthias Bierenstiel using an Indigenous Two-eyed seeing approach. She is currently an Ocean Graduate Excellence Network (OGEN) scholar who works in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to transform wasted by-products of the seafood processing industry to nanomaterials with applications in high-value sectors. Sarah is particularly interested in applying the principles of Green Chemistry to help achieve a circular economy and net zero goals.
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