An Effective Porous Activated Carbon Derived from Puffed Corn Employed as the Separator Coating in a Lithium–Sulfur Battery

Lithium–sulfur batteries are recognized as novel energy storage systems because of their high theoretical specific capacity and energy density. Nevertheless, they also have technical bottlenecks such as the “shuttle effect”, poor conductivity of sulfur, and volume change. Herein, an effective porous activated carbon derived from puffed corn is coated on a polypropylene (PP) separator to improve the properties of lithium–sulfur batteries. Puffed corn carbon (PCC) and activated puffed corn carbon (APCC) are prepared by carbonization without and with KOH activation. Combined utilization of Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman, N 2 adsorption/desorption isotherm, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technologies demonstrates that the APCC sample has an amorphous carbon structure and it has high specific surface area of 2543.8 m 2 g −1 and a large pore volume of 2.14 cm 3 g −1 . The cell with an APCC‐coated separator exhibit an initial discharge capacity of 1045 mAh g −1 at 1 C, and convert to 471.6 mAh g −1 after 500 cycles. Overall, APCC provides an extensive prospect for high‐performance lithium–sulfur batteries.