Eco-friendly Anode Materials for Lithium and Sodium-ion Batteries from Wood Sources

The intricate materials found in nature boast remarkable multifunctional properties honed through millions of years of evolution, resulting in the highest optimal organization in terms of function, structure, and chemistry. Leveraging the distinctive attributes of natural materials through biomimicry present a captivating avenue for research, brimming with vast potential for groundbreaking discoveries. Among the array of precursors available, wood stands out as a prominent candidate that covered over 30 % of the global land surface. Renowned for its captivating mechanical properties and anisotropic hierarchical porosity finely tuned to facilitate swift pathways, wood embodies attributes of abundance and biodegradability. Consequently, scientists have drawn inspiration from wood's exceptional characteristics to engineer batteries exhibiting remarkable electrochemical performance. For instance, the characteristic hierarchical multi-channeled construction of wood serves as a blueprint for synthesizing energy storage materials endowed with heightened ion and electron diffusivity. Serving as an integrated carbonaceous scaffold featuring a hierarchical architecture and aligned channels, wood-based anodes enhance ion and electron conductivities, while bolstering the kinetics of charge transfer in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). This review underscores the recent strides made in utilizing wood as a hierarchically porous and renewable material for developing anode materials tailored for LIBs and SIBs. Additionally, it sheds light on the potential of wood-derived anode materials for LIBs and SIBs to alleviate the strain on critical raw materials, while accentuating the additional environmental sustainability benefits derived from such innovations. © 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.