Potato Peel Based Carbon–Sulfur Composite as Cathode Materials for Lithium Sulfur Battery

Abstract

Lithium sulfur battery has become one of the promising rechargeable battery systems to replace the conventional lithium ion battery. Commonly, it uses carbon–sulfur composites as cathode materials. Biomass based carbons has an important role in enhancing its electrochemical characteristics due to the high conductivity and porous structures. Here, potato peel wastes have been utilized to prepare porous carbon lithium sulfur battery through hydrothermal carbonization followed by the chemical activation method using KOH. After sulfur loading, as prepared carbon–sulfur composite shows stable coulombic efficiencies of above 98% and a reversible specific capacity of 804 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at current density of 100 mA g−1. These excellent electrochemical properties can be attributed to the unique structure of PPWC showing mesoporous structure with large specific surface areas. These results show the potential application of potato peel waste based porous carbon as electrode’s materials for lithium sulfur battery.