Insights into Degradation Caused by Carbon Electrodes

Wei Yu^a^,^b, Hirotomo Nishihara^b^,^c

^aFrontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS), Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

^bAdvanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

^cInstitute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2026 Conference (MATSUSSpring26)

F1 Safe Materials for Advanced Battery Systems

Barcelona, Spain, 2026 March 23rd - 27th

Organizers: Jingwen Weng and Leiting Zhang

Invited Speaker, Wei Yu, presentation 141
Publication date: 15th December 2025

Carbon materials have been widely used as main components or conductive additives in the electrodes of various electrochemical devices, including supercapacitors [1], Li-ion batteries [2], and beyond Li-ion batteries [3, 4]. The stability of carbon materials is an important but often overlooked factor that determines battery safety. Compared with the relatively more stable carbon basal plane, the key structural feature that may be the origin of oxidation reactions in carbon materials is carbon edge sites. To precisely quantify carbon edge sites, we have developed a unique temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) technique with an upper limit temperature of 1800 ^oC [5]. Using advanced TPD, we found a strong correlation between the number of H-terminated and oxygen-functionalized carbon edge sites and carbon electrode corrosion in supercapacitors [6]. In addition, the amount of carbon edge sites also controls the stability of Li-O₂ batteries [7]. By combining differential electrochemical mass spectrometry with isotopic ¹³C labeling techniques, we have investigated the carbon electrode corrosion mechanism in Li-O₂ batteries [8]. In our recent work, we also explored how carbon edge sites affect SEI formation, ion diffusion, and rate performance in Na-ion batteries by using TPD together with other comprehensive characterization techniques. In this talk, I will summarize our recent progress in determining the degradation caused by carbon electrodes in advanced batteries.

References:

[1] Liu, X.; Lyu, D.; Merlet, C.; Leesmith, M. J. A.; Hua, X.; Xu, Z.; Grey, C. P.; Forse, A. C., Structural disorder determines capacitance in nanoporous carbons. Science 2024, 384 (6693), 321-325.

[2] Babu, B., Carbon–based Materials for Li-ion Battery. Batteries Supercaps 2024, 7 (3), e202300537.

[3] Xie, L.; Tang, C.; Bi, Z.; Song, M.; Fan, Y.; Yan, C.; Li, X.; Su, F.; Zhang, Q.; Chen, C., Hard Carbon Anodes for Next-Generation Li-Ion Batteries: Review and Perspective. Adv.Energy Mater. 2021, 11 (38), 2101650.

[4] Balaish, M.; Jung, J.-W.; Kim, I.-D.; Ein-Eli, Y., A Critical Review on Functionalization of Air-Cathodes for Nonaqueous Li–O2 Batteries. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 30 (18), 1808303.

[5] Ishii, T.; Kashihara, S.; Hoshikawa, Y.; Ozaki, J.-i.; Kannari, N.; Takai, K.; Enoki, T.; Kyotani, T., A quantitative analysis of carbon edge sites and an estimation of graphene sheet size in high-temperature treated, non-porous carbons. Carbon 2014, 80, 135-145.

[6] Tang, R.; Taguchi, K.; Nishihara, H.; Ishii, T.; Morallón, E.; Cazorla-Amorós, D.; Asada, T.; Kobayashi, N.; Muramatsu, Y.; Kyotani, T., Insight into the origin of carbon corrosion in positive electrodes of supercapacitors. J. Mater. Chem. A 2019, 7 (13), 7480-7488.

[7] Yu, W.; Yoshii, T.; Aziz, A.; Tang, R.; Pan, Z.-Z.; Inoue, K.; Kotani, M.; Tanaka, H.; Scholtzová, E.; Tunega, D.; Nishina, Y.; Nishioka, K.; Nakanishi, S.; Zhou, Y.; Terasaki, O.; Nishihara, H., Edge-Site-Free and Topological-Defect-Rich Carbon Cathode for High-Performance Lithium-Oxygen Batteries. Adv. Sci. 2023, 10 (16), 2300268.

[8] Shen, Z.; Yu, W.; Aziz, A.; Yoshii, T.; Hatakeyama, Y.; Kobayashi, E.; Kress, T.; Liu, X.; Forse, A. C.; Nishihara, H., High-purity 13C-labeled mesoporous carbon electrodes decouple degradation pathways in Li-O2 batteries with polymorphic Ru catalysts. Appl. Catal. B Environ 2026, 383, 126030.

Acknowledgements:

This presentation was supported by JST ASPIRE (grant no. JPMJAP2309) and JSPS KAKENHI (grant no. 24K17761).

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