Activated non-graphitizable hard carbon using orange peel with mesoporous structure has been prepared by pyrolyzation at 700, 800, 900 °C using chemical activation method. The activated orange peel-derived hard carbon has been characterized for its mesoporous and disordered structure. TG-DSC gives the information for the changes about sample composition and thermal stability of the materials. Increasing the carbonization temperature for orange peel precursor using NaOH as activating agent, elevates the pore diameter, which thereby facilitating the insertion of Na+. Raman and X-ray diffraction confirms the presence of disordered carbon. The surface morphology of the material was analyzed by scanning eletron microsope and nitrogen ( N2) adsorption and desorption analysis give the morphology, mesopore size (3.374, 3.39 and 4 nm) and surace area (60.164, 58.99 and 54.327 m2/g) of the orange peel-derived hard carbon. Hence, this work strongly evidences that the biomass-derived hard carbon with good porosity and paves way of superior electrochemical performance for emerging sodium ion batteries.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experimental
        2.1 Materials and methods
        2.2 Characterization
    3 Results and discussion
    4 Conclusion
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• T. Meenatchi(Department of Physics, Science Block, Energy Materials Lab, Alagappa University)
• V. Priyanka(Department of Physics, Science Block, Energy Materials Lab, Alagappa University)
• R. Subadevi(Department of Physics, Science Block, Energy Materials Lab, Alagappa University)
• Wei‑Ren Liu(Department of Chemical Engineering, R&D Center for Membrane Technology, Research Center for Circular Economy, Chung-Yuan Christian University)
• Chia‑Hung Huang(Metal Industries Research and Development Centre)
• M. Sivakumar(Department of Physics, Science Block, Energy Materials Lab, Alagappa University)