Pomelo peel-derived porous carbon as excellent LiPS anchor in lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries are of significant roles in the next-generation energy storage devices due to the high theoretical capacity and energy density. However, the disturbing shuttle effect, poor conductivity as well as large volume change of the electrode in the cycling process have seriously hindered the practical application. A porous-activated carbon derived from pomelo peel is thus developed with high specific surface area (2326.4 m2 g−1) and abundant N and O heteroatoms to function as host of the S cathode. This porous carbon host originated from the renewable biomass of pomelo peel demonstrates remarkable advantages including higher sulfur accommodation (90% of S in C/S composite), improved conversion kinetics, and suppressed shuttle effect, which endows excellent electrochemical performances. Consequently, the prepared composite with 91.51% sulfur content delivers a high specific discharge capacity of 662.2 mAh g−1 at 1 C as well as a low capacity decay rate of 0.068% per cycle.Graphical abstract