A review of petroleum asphalt-based carbon materials in electrochemical energy storage

Petroleum asphalt, an important by-product of the petrochemical industry, has diverse applications but often suffers from low industrial added value. Owing to the characteristics of low cost, high carbon content, and rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, modifying and structurally designing petroleum asphalt can enhance its value and expand its energy storage applications. Selecting petroleum asphalt as a precursor and optimizing design tactics are expected to address environmental, equipment maintenance, and low production level issues caused by the introduction of additional templates or activator agents. The current research progress on the common preparation methods including template-assisted pyrolysis, molten salt, activation, heteroatom doping, and pre-oxidation, for petroleum asphalt-based carbon materials are reviewed. It also presents their applications in electrochemical energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors and alkali metal ion batteries. Moreover, the problems and feasible solutions for future research are proposed, aiming to provide insights into the high value-added utilization of petroleum asphalt.