LAUSR

For alkali metal-ion batteries, carbon materials are always regarded as the most promising anodes for commercialization, as is seen in the history of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The success of graphite anodes in LIBs indicates the importance of low-potential charge/discharge plateaus (LPPs) for achieving high energy density [1]. As the counterpart to LIBs, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are showing great potential for large-scale energy-storage applications, owing to the natural abundance and low cost of sodium resources. In SIBs, some types of non-graphitic carbons are reported to deliver LPPs similar to those of graphite in LIBs [2]. However, challenged by the variable and complicated microstructure of non-graphitic carbons, strategies to produce and reversibly extend their LPPs remain unclear and this inevitably impedes the rational designof non-graphitic carbon anodes for practical SIBs. Li et al. recently represented a conceptual advance for designing sieving carbons (SCs) by reconfiguring nongraphitic carbons, and achieved extensible and reversible LPPs of SC anodes in SIBs [3]. Similar to the lessons learned from the graphite anode in LIBs, the rational design of SCs have taken both the interfacial electrochemistry and electrode chemistry into careful consideration. Closed nanopores of non-graphitic carbons are believed to be crucial to the emergence of LPPs [4–9]. As vividly depicted in Fig. 1, if the specific surface area obtained by N2 adsorption is large, the capacity originating from the LPP is negligible. In contrast, if the specific surface Specific surface area obtained by N2 absorption (m2 g-1) PC AC 300