Study of the Activator Effects on the Specific Surface Area of Porous Carbon and its Performance as Lithium-Sulfur Battery Cathode

Abstract:

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of activator types KOH, ZnCl₂, and H₃PO₄ on the specific surface area of porous carbon and its performance as a Li-S battery. Porous carbon was synthesized from candlenut shells through a carbonization process at 700 °C using three types of activator solutions with a concentration of 0.36 M. The porous carbon activated with KOH achieved the best results, with a specific surface area of 681 m²g^-1. The porous carbon candlenut shell-sulfur (PCCS-S) composite was obtained by the solid-state reaction method in a ratio of 1:2.5 w% and heat-treated at 155 °C to form the PCCS-S composite. The PCCS-S composite was then made into a slurry and coated onto Al-foil to obtain a layer of electrodes with a thickness of 200 µm. The PCCS-S cathode was then assembled into a coin battery with lithium metal as the anode and an electrolyte of 1.0 M LiTFSi solution dissolved in 1,3-dioxolane (DOL) and 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) (v/v, 1:1). Charge-discharge characterization was carried out at a charge rate of 1 C for 50 cycles. Characterization shows that the performance of the PCCS-S KOH composite cathode Li-S battery is stable at a specific capacity of 324 mAhg^-1 after the first 10 cycles, with an average Coulombic efficiency of around 86.8 %.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 989)
• Pages: 3-10
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-B9dAIM
• Online since: October 2024
• Authors: Nana Suryana*, Sarifah Mudaim, Otong Nurhilal, Sahrul Hidayat
• Keywords: Candlenut Shell, Charge-Discharge, Li-S Battery, Porous Carbon, Sulfur

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