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From agaric hydrogel to nitrogen-doped 3D porous carbon for high-performance Li–S batteries

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Abstract

Reproducible massive biochar with low cost has attracted great attentions due to their potential applications in the future environment and energy. In this work, a nitrogen-doped 3D porous agaric carbon (N-AC) with high specific surface area (1568.2 m2 g−1) was fabricated without adding any activator by using the agaric hydrogel as a precursor. And when employed as a sulfur host, the resulted N-AC–sulfur composite electrode with 60 wt% sulfur content illustrates a high reversible capacity of 875 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C (1 C = 1675 mA g−1) over 100 cycles as well as an excellent rate capability of 620 mAh g−1 at 2 C. Such excellent electrochemical performances could attribute to (1) the conductive carbon skeleton of N-AC that provides rapid electron/ion transfer; (2) abundant pores range from micropores to macropores in N-AC that are beneficial to accommodating the active sulfur and polysulfides and (3) the nitrogen dopants that provide polarized sites in chemical binding of polysulfides. In a word, this work provides a compelling avenue to the design of multifunctional sulfur host for advanced Li–S batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51902036, 51808080), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing Science & Technology Commission (No. cstc2019jcyj-msxm1407), the Venture & Innovation Support Program for Chongqing Overseas Returnees (Grant No. CX2018129), the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. KJQN201800808), the Start-up Foundation of High-level Talents in Chongqing Technology and Business University (Grant No.1856008) and Open Research Fund of Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and New Environmental Materials (Grant No. KFJJ2018082). Dr. Liu also wanted to thank the financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/S032886/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center for Waste Oil Recovery Technology and Equipment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and New Environmental Materials, College of Environment and Resources, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China

    Xingxing Gu, Hui Li, Hongyu Wen, Yanjun Zhou, Han Kang, Hu Liao, Maohua Gao, Yueqin Wang, Lan Deng, Xinxin Yi & Xiaoteng Liu

  2. Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

    Xingxing Gu & Xiaoteng Liu

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Gu, X., Li, H., Wen, H. et al. From agaric hydrogel to nitrogen-doped 3D porous carbon for high-performance Li–S batteries. J Mater Sci 55, 1136–1147 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03999-3

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