Mesoporous carbon prepared by etching halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) with pyrrole as a precursor for a sulfur carrier of superior lithium-sulfur batteries

Jiuqing Liu; Cheng Wang; Jinqiang Cui; Jie Li; Qihou Li; Meng Liu; Yang Xi

doi:10.1039/c9ra01749f

Mesoporous carbon prepared by etching halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) with pyrrole as a precursor for a sulfur carrier of superior lithium-sulfur batteries

RSC Adv. 2019 Apr 23;9(22):12331-12338. doi: 10.1039/c9ra01749f. eCollection 2019 Apr 17.

Authors

Jiuqing Liu¹, Cheng Wang¹, Jinqiang Cui¹, Jie Li¹, Qihou Li¹, Meng Liu¹, Yang Xi¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University Changsha Hunan 410083 China jiuqing_liu@163.com +86 0731 88710171.

Abstract

Using pyrrole as a carbon precursor and halloysite nanotubes (HNT) as a templating agent, mesoporous carbon (MC) was prepared by template etching and combined with sulfur as a composite cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries. The mesoporous carbon/sulfur (MC/S) composite cathode exhibits a first cycle discharge specific capacity of 1355 mA h g^-1 at 0.2C, and the utilization rate of active sulfur can reach 80.9%. Even after 500 cycles, the discharge specific capacity still remains at 496.9 mA h g^-1 when tested at 0.5C. Furthermore, the hollow groove structure present in the MC/S electrode provides a large number of active sites for electrochemical reactions. The prepared MC/S composite cathode not only has a high discharge specific capacity and good cycle stability, but also increases the energy density of the lithium-sulfur battery. Therefore, this preparation process of MC is more conducive to practical application.