Bonding‐chemistry‐guided design of carbon frameworks for rechargeable‐ion batteries

Abstract

Abstract Various carbon frameworks are central to rechargeable‐ion batteries, while continuous structural and compositional regulation provides broad opportunities to improve fast‐charging capability, storage capacity, and cycling stability. However, a unified chemistry‐based understanding that directly connects carbon structure with electrochemical behavior remains insufficient. Herein, bonding chemistry is proposed as an atom‐level framework for interpreting diverse carbon materials. It encompasses intrinsic C/C hybridization, carbon‐heteroatom interactions, and dynamic bonding between carbon frameworks and charge‐carrying species during electrochemical storage. From this perspective, carbon materials are re‐examined according to their hybridization‐derived frameworks, porous textures, defect‐related features, and corresponding electrochemical consequences. Carbon‐nonmetal covalent configurations, polarized carbon‐halogen bonds, and metal‐carbon or heteroatom‐mediated coordination environments are further analyzed in terms of bond type, polarity, strength, orbital coupling, spatial distribution, and dynamic evolution. The bonding changes associated with ion adsorption, insertion, co‐intercalation, and conversion reactions are also discussed. Overall, this perspective establishes a cross‐scale, bond‐descriptor‐based framework that links synthetic regulation to local bonding states and subsequently to ion‐storage thermodynamics, transport kinetics, interfacial chemistry, and reaction reversibility, thereby enabling a more systematic and predictive design of advanced carbon frameworks for rechargeable‐ion batteries. image