Volume 46, Issue 4 pp. 4339-4351
RESEARCH ARTICLE

A facile one-step synthesis of bio-inspired porous graphitic carbon sheets for improved lithium-sulfur battery performance

Erabhoina Harimohan

Erabhoina Harimohan

Center for Nanomaterials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India

Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India

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Katchala Nanaji

Katchala Nanaji

Center for Nanomaterials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India

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Boyapati Venkat Appa Rao

Boyapati Venkat Appa Rao

Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India

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Tata Narasinga Rao

Corresponding Author

Tata Narasinga Rao

Center for Nanomaterials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India

Correspondence

Tata Narasinga Rao, Center for Nanomaterials, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Balapur, Hyderabad, Telangana 500005, India.

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 29 October 2021
Citations: 5

Erabhoina Harimohan and Katchala Nanaji contributed equally to this study.

Funding information: Department of Science and Technology (DST), India,; ARCI-technical research center, Grant/Award Number: AI/1/65/ARCI/2014 (c)

Summary

The development of cost-effective carbon materials with tunable porosity for energy storage applications is challenging. In this study, a facile one-step in situ chemical activation process was adopted to synthesize porous graphitic carbon sheets (GCSs) from a tissue paper. The resulting GCS exhibits high specific surface area, large pore volume, and a highly graphitized carbon structure with graphene-like morphology. Sulfur-infused GCSs with optimum sulfur loading along with GCS-coated separator deliver a high initial discharge capacity of 1643 mAh g−1 at 0.1C rate. Moreover, when the electrode is tested at a high current rate of 1C, the cell delivered excellent cyclic stability of 652 mAh g−1 over 200 cycles. The improved electrochemical performance attributes to the unique properties of GCS, which functions as an efficient host matrix as well as an interlayer by constraining the dissolved polysulfides in addition to the enhancement in ionic and electronic conductivities.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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