Perpustakaan Digital ITB

The lithium?sulfur battery (LSB) is apromising candidate for future energy storage but facestechnological challenges including the low electronic con-ductivity of sulfur and the solubility of intermediates duringcycling. Additionally, current host materials often lacksufficient conductivity and porosity to raise the sulfur loadingto over 80 wt %. Here, ordered mesoporous graphitic carbon/iron carbide nanocomposites were prepared via an evapo-ration-induced self-assembly process using soluble resol,prehydrolyzed tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and iron(III)chloride as the carbon, silica (SiO2), and iron precursors,respectively. Graphitization and SiO2etching were conductedsimultaneously via Teflon-assisted, solid-state decompositionat high temperature. A high surface area (?3100 m2g?1), large pore volume (?3.3 cm3g?1), and graphitized carbon frame wereachieved, giving a high sulfur loading (85 wt %) while tolerating volumetric expansion during discharge. Electrochemical testingof a LSB containing the composite/sulfur cathode exhibited a superior reversible capacity exceeding 1300 mAh g?1at amoderate current (C/10) and a low decay in capacity of 9% after 500 cycles at C/5. The interaction between mesoporousgraphitic carbon and sulfur is proposed.