Abstract
A novel carbon-sulfur composite, mesoporous carbon-sulfur, was developed as cathode of lithium/sulfur battery. The mesoporous carbon was prepared with sucrose as carbon precursor and calcium carbonate nanoparticles as pore producer. The sulfur was encapsulated in the mesoporous carbon via a simple chemical deposition strategy and a subsequent low-temperature thermal treatment process. The morphology and structure of the resulting composite were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurement, and thermogravimetric analysis. Its electrochemical performances as cathode of lithium/sulfur battery were evaluated with cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge test. The prepared carbon showed a specific surface area of 598 m2 g−1 with a bimodal pore distribution centered at 3.6 and 40 nm. The resulting mesoporous carbon-sulfur delivered an initial capacity of 1,380 mAh g−1 at 0.02 C and maintained a capacity of 750 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 C.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yuan G, Xiang J (2013) Ionics 19:1449–1453
Wei W, Wang JL, Zhou LJ, Yang J, Schumann B, NuLi YN (2011) Electrochem Commun 13:399–402
Du K, Zhang LH, Cao YB, Peng ZD, Hu GR (2012) Mater Chem Phys 136:925–929
Lin YB, Lin Y, Zhou T, Zhao GY, Huang YD, Yang YM, Huang ZG (2013) Mater Chem Phys 138:313–318
Shim J, Striebel KA, Cairns EJ (2002) J Electrochem Soc 149:A1321–A1325
Yuan LX, Yuan HP, Qiu XP, Chen LQ, Zhu WT, Power J (2009) Sources 189:1141–1146
Zhang B, Qin X, Li GR, Gao XP (2010) Energ Environ Sci 3:1531–1537
Rao MM, Geng XY, Li XP, Hu SJ, Li WS, Power J (2012) Sources 212:179–185
Zheng GY, Yang Y, Cha JJ, Hong SS, Cui Y (2011) Nano Lett 11:4462–4467
Wei SC, Zhang H, Huang YQ, Wang WK, Xia YZ, Yu ZB (2011) Energ Environ Sci 4:736–740
Geng XY, Rao MM, Li XP, Li WS, Solid State J (2013) Electrochem 17:987–992
Wu F, Chen JZ, Chen RJ, Wu SX, Li L, Chen S, Zhao T, Phys J (2011) Chem C 115:6057–6063
Xu B, Peng L, Wang GQ, Cao GP, Wu F (2010) Carbon 48:2377–2380
Rao MM, Song XY, Cairns EJ, Power J (2012) Sources 205:474–478
Liang X, Wen ZY, Liu Y, Zhang H, Huang LZ, Jin J, Power J (2011) Sources 196:3655–3658
Rao MM, Li WS, Cairns EJ (2012) Electrochem Commun 17:1–5
Choi YJ, Chung YD, Baek CY, Kim KW, Ahn HJ, Ahn JH, Power J (2008) Sources 184:548–552
Ji LW, Rao MM, Aloni S, Wang L, Cairns EJ, Zhang YG (2011) Energ Environ Sci 4:5053–5059
Ji LW, Rao MM, Zheng HM, Zhang L, Li YC, Duan WH, Guo JH, Cairns EJ, Zhang YG (2011) J Am Chem Soc 133:18522–18525
Song MK, Zhang YG, Cairns EJ (2013) Nano Lett 13:5891–5899
Zhang Y, Zhao Y, Bakenov Z (2014) Ionics 20:1047–1050
Acknowledgments
The authors are highly grateful for the financial support from the joint project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. U1134002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21273084), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 10351063101000001, S2013040016471), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (Grant No. 2013M530369), the key project of Science and Technology in Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2011A010802001), and the scientific research project of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2013CXZDA013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Geng, X., Liao, Y., Rao, M. et al. Mesoporous carbon-sulfur composite as cathode for lithium-sulfur battery. Ionics 21, 645–650 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-014-1227-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-014-1227-8