Carhons were prepared at different temperatures by pyrolytic treatment of phenolformaldehyde resin molded with ZnCl2 in advance. X-ray structure analyses have shown that these carbon are essentially amorphous with rather loose structure of molecular size order with an interlayer distance of 0.36—0.37 nm. Using electrochemical methods, we have studied the insertion of lithium within these materials. Resole resins, heated to 580 ℃, have a reversible capacity of about 400 mA·h/g, which is beyond the theoretical capacity of graphite（372 mA·h/g） and discover that carbons with a smaller crystallite size and large interlayer distance have the larger discharge capacity.
