Mesoporous carbon materials prepared from litchi shell as sulfur encapsulator for lithium-sulfur battery application

• Published in: Journal of power sources 2016-08, Vol.324, p.547-555
• Main Authors: Sun, Zhenjie, Wang, Shuanjin, Yan, Longlong, Xiao, Min, Han, Dongmei, Meng, Yuezhong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; carbon−sulfur nanocomposites; Cathodes; Discharge; Electron conductivity; Encapsulation; Litchi; Lithium-sulfur batteries; Mesoporous carbon materials; Sulfur; Surface area; Wastes
• ISSN: 0378-7753; 1873-2755
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.05.122

Novel mesoporous carbon materials (MCMs) with excellent electron conductivity and high surface area are successfully synthesized from waste litchi shells. The as-prepared MCMs possess a narrow pore size distribution (0.5–2.0 nm) and exhibit similar electron conductivities to conductive carbon black (Super P, Timcal). Because of the unique properties of MCMs, they are used as host matrixes to encapsulate sulfur for lithium-sulfur cathodes. The obtained MCMs-sulfur (MCMs-S) composite cathodes deliver a high initial specific capacity of 1667 mAh g−1. Moreover, 300 °C treated MCMs-S composite cathode shows a more stable discharge capacity than the untreated MCMs-S composite cathode, it remains 612 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at a high current density of 0.5 C. •Mesoporous carbon materials (MCMs) were synthesized from waste litchi shells.•The as-prepared MCMs exhibit a similar conductivity to conductive carbon black.•MCMs-S cathode delivers a very high initial specific capacity of 1667 mAh g−1.•The MCMs-S cathode material treated at 300 °C remains 612 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles.