A novel sulfur/carbon composite for low cost lithium–sulfur batteries with high cycling stability

Abstract

The lithium sulfur (Li–S) battery is a promising electrochemical system for the next generation high density rechargeable batteries having a theoretical energy density of ∼2600 W h kg⁻¹. In spite of the intrinsic advantages, Li–S batteries currently are confronted with a variety of problems such as low specific capacity and short cycle life. In this work, a novel sulfur/carbon composite was prepared using coconut shell carbon as raw material for Li–S batteries. The structure of the composite could accommodate the volume expansion of sulfur particles and trap the dissolved polysulfide produced during the electrochemical reaction. Therefore, the composite based cell demonstrates a high initial capacity of 878 mA h g⁻¹ at a rate of 0.1 C, and excellent cycling stability, in which a reversible capacity of 774 mA h g⁻¹ was maintained even after 50 cycles.