Moss-Derived Mesoporous Carbon as Bi-Functional Electrode Materials for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries and Supercapacitors

Abstract

In this work, we reported a moss-derived biomass porous carbon (MPC) as a bi-functional electrode material for both the lithium–sulfur battery and the supercapacitor. The MPC was prepared from a high-temperature calcination procedure using the moss as the carbonaceous precursor. Using NaOH, the MPC was activated to give a mesoporous structure with a high specific surface area (1057.1 m2 g−1) and large pore volume (0.72 cm3 g−1). When it was used as the cathode material in lithium–sulfur batteries, the MPC material realized a sulfur loading and exhibited a remarkably improved electrochemical performance, i.e., a high discharge capacity of 1070 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C. This activated MPC also worked well as a capacitive electrode in supercapacitors, demonstrating a high specific capacitance of 332 F g−1 (scan rate of 1.0 A g−1) and a high capacity retention > 97% in a long-term cycle of 1000 charge/discharges. This work demonstrated a facile method for the utilization of activated waste biomass material for future clean energy applications.

A Comparative Study of the Influence of Nitrogen Content and Structural Characteristics of NiS/Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanocomposites on Capacitive Performances in Alkaline Medium

“…Furthermore, scientists have developed numerous EES devices to store more energy with a long-life cycle. Among the existing EES devices, there is a complementary relationship between metal-ion batteries (MIBs) and supercapacitors (SCs) since the former has a high energy density, but the latter can deliver extreme power density [1][2][3][4][5]. It is recognized that increasing the power energy of the MIBs to as high as that of the SCs is intrinsically challenging, owing to the insertion/extraction of the metal ions from the corresponding electrode materials being principally essential, that is, the energy storage mechanism [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Cinnamon-Derived Hierarchically Porous Carbon as an Effective Lithium Polysulfide Reservoir in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…To address these issues, the sulfur cathode design has been reconfigured by embedding sulfur into highly conductive porous carbons [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], encapsulating sulfur using conductive polymer coatings [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], utilizing Li 2 S as an initial active material [ 14 ] and utilizing lithium polysulfide adsorbents to trap the lithium polysulfides within the cathode to enhance the cycling performance of Li–S cells [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In addition, strategies such as protecting the lithium metal surface [ 18 , 19 , 20 ], utilizing non-lithium metal anodes [ 21 ], modifying the electrolyte composition through a rational selection of solvents and electrolyte additives [ 22 , 23 ] and modifying the separator to block the migration of lithium polysulfides to the anode side have been adopted to mitigate the capacity-fading observed upon cycling [ 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Directly Grown Multiwall Carbon Nanotube and Hydrothermal MnO2 Composite for High-Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes

“…There are three main types of electrodes, namely, carbon nanomaterials, metal oxides/hydroxides, and polymers [3,4,5,6]. Supercapacitor devices constructed upon carbon nanomaterials, including carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphene, have been widely investigated and have shown remarkable electrochemical properties [7,8,9,10]. Wei et al prepared a 3D nanostructure by growing carbon nanotubes between graphene layers, which exhibited good electrochemical properties with a specific capacitance of 385 F·g −1 [11].…”