Biomass-derived carbons have emerged as a sustainable and versatile material for energy storage application. In this study, a novel approach is employed to synthesize 3D interconnected mesoporous biomass-derived carbon using mesoporous silica as a template. The facile and cost-effective method enables the successful synthesis of pinecone-derived carbon using mesoporous silica KIT-6 as a template. Three different chemical reagents, namely H3BO3, K2CO3 and KOH, are used separately to prepare chemically activated pinecone-derived carbons. When treated as an anode in lithium-ion batteries, the template-assisted pinecone-derived carbon (PDC-T) provides excellent discharge capacities of 822.8 and 272.1 mAh g-1 beyond 500 cycles at current densities of 100 and 1000 mA g-1, respectively. On the other hand, the chemically activated PDC-H3BO3, PDC-K2CO3 and PDC-KOH anodes exhibit corresponding discharge capacities of 571.4, 337.8 and 365.4 mAh g-1 beyond 500 cycles at 100 mA g-1. In sodium-ion battery, the PDC-T anode delivers superior discharge capacity of 338.9 mAh g-1 at 50 mA g-1. The electrode provides discharge capacities of 271.5 and 103.3 mAh g-1 beyond 500 and 1000 long cycles at 100 and 500 mA g-1, respectively. This study demonstrates an alternative approach for synthesizing high-performance biomass-derived mesoporous carbons for use in rechargeable metal-ion batteries. (Published in J. Power Sources 580 (2023) 233329)
