Soybean-derived hierarchical porous carbon with large sulfur loading and sulfur content for high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 4; no. 42; pp. 16507 - 16515
• Main Authors: Ren, Guofeng, Li, Shiqi, Fan, Zhao-Xia, Warzywoda, Juliusz, Fan, Zhaoyang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Carbon; Cycles; Electrodes; Lithium sulfur batteries; Nanostructure; Pyrolysis; Soybeans; Sulfur
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c6ta07446d

An hierarchical porous carbon nanostructure with intrinsic O- and N-dopants and an ultrahigh specific surface area of 1500 m2 g-1 is reported towards the goal of designing and achieving a better sulfur electrode for lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) that can provide both large sulfur loading and large sulfur content and are based on a facile fabrication process. This nanostructure was derived from crude soybeans in a facile pyrolysis process. Using it as a sulfur host, the S/C active composite with 80% sulfur content was made. Cells with different sulfur loadings were investigated and were found to demonstrate large capacity, high coulombic and energy efficiencies, and high cycling stability. In particular, for a sulfur loading of 5.5 mg cm-2 and a sulfur content of 80%, cells displayed a specific capacity of ca. 950 mA h g-1, which corresponds to an areal capacity of 5.2 mA h cm-2. Such a performance moves LSB technology closer to practical applications.