Mango stone derived activated carbon with high sulfur loading as a cathode material for lithium sulfur batteries
A set of mango stone (MS) derived activated carbons with tunable pore structure parameters have been synthesized via a KOH activation procedure. The maximum specific surface area of 3334 m2 g 1 and pore volume of 2.17 cm3 g 1 are obtained for the material which is pre carbonized at 500 degC and treated with a KOH/char mass ratio of 4 (a MSs 500 4) Given the large pore volume of the resultant a MSs 500 4 activated carbon, a high sulfur loading of up to 71 wt% can be achieved (a MSs 500 4/71) When applied in a lithium sulfur battery, the a MSs 500 4/71 composite cathode exhibits 64% capacity retention over 500 cycles at 800 mA g 1 and 45% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 1600 mA g 1, indicating excellent long term cycling performance. Moreover, after 1 wt% LiNO3 is introduced as the electrolyte additive, the average coulombic efficiency of the electrode is as high as approximately 99%