Abstract
Mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) is one of the promising carbon materials as anodes for rechargeable lithium batteries among commercially available carbon materials. We have examined the correlation between carbon structures and chargedischarge characteristics of the MCMBs prepared at different heat‐treatment temperatures. It was found that the MCMB heat‐treated at 700°C possesses a tremendously high charge‐discharge capacity of 
. This suggests that there is another mechanism for the charge‐discharge reaction besides a graphite intercalation compound mechanism which is well known. Therefore, we propose a cavity mechanism in which intercrystallite spaces in MCMB are capable of storing lithium species.