Tremella-like nitrogen-doped microporous carbon derived from housefly larvae for efficient encapsulation of small S2–4 molecules in Li-S batteries. (8th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Dan; Razaq, Rameez; Xin, Ying; Zhang, Jinghao; Li, Qian; Huang, Taizhong; Zhang, Zhaoliang
• Is Part Of: Materials research express. Volume 6:Number 8(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-05-08
• Subjects: housefly larvae -- tremella-like nitrogen-doped carbon -- ultra-micropore -- lithium-sulfur battery -- small sulfur molecule; Materials science -- Research -- Periodicals; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1088/2053-1591/ab1bf9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-1591

Abstract

Abstract: The commercialization of rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) has been severely restricted due to the electrically insulating nature of sulfur and the dissolution of polysulfides Li2 S n (4 ≤ n ≤ 8). Herein, we demonstrated a sustainable and proficient strategy to synthesize a unique and cost-effective tremella-like nitrogen-doped microporous carbon (TNMC) materials derived from housefly larvae. The key feature of TNMC is that it possesses interconnected 3D channels with voids, high surface area (>1000 m 2 g −1 ) along with large volume (0.62 cm 3 g −1 ). Particularly, a high portion of ultra-micropore and the predominant pore width of ∼0.54 nm play important roles in confining the metastable small sulfur molecules (S2–4 ) physically. More importantly, TNMCs with sufficient nitrogen doping (6–8 wt%) not only improve the conductivity of sulfur electrode materials but also act as an active site for adsorbing S2–4 chemically and reducing the shuttle effect efficiently. Beneficial from the unique 3D microstructures with ultra-micropore and inherent nitrogen doping, the resultant LSBs show high reversible capacity with a stable Coulombic efficiency.