Pig bone derived hierarchical porous carbon and its enhanced cycling performance of lithium–sulfur batteries

Abstract

Pig bone derived carbon with a unique hierarchical porous structure was prepared by potassium hydroxide (KOH) activation. The effects of activation temperature on the textural properties of the pig bone based carbons were investigated. The hierarchical porous carbons exhibit the largest BET specific surface areas and pore volume when the activation temperature reaches 850 °C, and the carbon still maintains a highly hierarchical structure even when the temperature is up to 950 °C. The pig bone derived hierarchical porous carbon/sulfur composites have been tested as a novel cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. The result shows that the cycle stability and the utilization of sulfur in the lithium–sulfur batteries have been largely improved. The hierarchical porous carbon/sulfur cathode has a high initial capacity of 1265 mAh g−1 and 643 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles, which is higher than that of the normal cathodes with compact structures.