High specific surface area bimodal porous carbon derived from biomass reed flowers for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Zhifeng Wang; Xiaomin Zhang; Xiaoli Liu; Yongguang Zhang; Weimin Zhao; Yongyan Li; Chunling Qin; Zhumabay Bakenov

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.062

High specific surface area bimodal porous carbon derived from biomass reed flowers for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Jun 1:569:22-33. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.062. Epub 2020 Feb 17.

Authors

Zhifeng Wang¹, Xiaomin Zhang¹, Xiaoli Liu², Yongguang Zhang³, Weimin Zhao¹, Yongyan Li⁴, Chunling Qin¹, Zhumabay Bakenov⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for New Type of Functional Materials in Hebei Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science & Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, China.
³ Key Laboratory for New Type of Functional Materials in Hebei Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. Electronic address: yongguangzhang@hebut.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory for New Type of Functional Materials in Hebei Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. Electronic address: liyongyan@hebut.edu.cn.
⁵ Institute of Batteries LLC, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Avenue, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan.

PMID: 32097799
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.062

Abstract

With the advantages of excellent theoretical specific capacity and specific energy, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery is regarded as one of promising energy storage systems. However, poor conductivity and shuttle effect of intermediate electrochemical reaction products limit its application. As good sulfur carriers, porous carbon materials can effectively remit these shortcomings. In this paper, a combination of a hydrothermal KOH activation and successive pyrolysis of biomass reed flowers is proposed to prepare a bimodal porous carbon (BPC) material with high specific surface area (1712.6 m² g^-1). The as-obtained low-cost BPC/S cathodes exhibit excellent cycling performance (908 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 C after 100 cycles), good rate capability and cyclability (663 mAh g^-1 at 1 C after 1000 cycles), as well as a high areal capacity (6.6 mAh cm^-2 at 0.1 C after 50 cycles with a sulfur loading of 8.3 mg cm^-2). Such excellent electrochemical performance was mainly ascribed to a specific bimodal porous structure with high specific surface area and plenty spaces for sulfur impregnating, which significantly reduces the escape of polysulfides during cycling and guarantees a good cycling stability. Moreover, the secondary class pores (mesopores and micropores) of the material offer plenty of small channels to improve the electronic and ionic transfer rate and, consequently, to enhance the rate capability. The as-synthesized BPC material presents a great potential as a sulfur carrier material for Li-S battery applications. In this work, we also demonstrate a simple route to develop low-cost carbon materials derived from renewable biomass which may expand and promote their use in energy storage applications.

Keywords: Bimodal; Biomass; Carbon; Cathode; Li-S batteries; Porous.