A facile synthesis approach to micro–macroporous carbon from cotton and its application in the lithium–sulfur battery

Abstract

A new type of low-cost activated micro–macroporous carbon suitable for mass production that is derived from cotton was successfully prepared by using potassium hydrate in a chemical activation method. The activated carbon exhibits a hierarchically porous microstructure and high specific surface area (1286 m² g⁻¹). The micro–macroporous structure allows a large amount of sulfur (68%) to be infiltrated into the micropores of the host. When evaluated as a cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries, the hierarchically porous carbon–sulfur composite electrode exhibits excellent cycling stability and good performance. The resulting composite electrode possesses a reversible capacity of 760 mA h g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at the 0.2 C current rate.