Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SC1-P007
COMPOSITE OF SULFUR AND CARBON OBTAINED FROM
CORNCOBS AT A HIGH TEMPERATURE, AS CATHODE OF Li-S
BATTERIES
Juan David Garay Marín 1 , Enrique Quiroga González 1
1 Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Institute of Physics, Mexico.
Rechargeable lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are receiving ever-increasing
attention due to their high theoretical gravimetric capacity (~1600 mAh/g), which
exceeds the capacity of the traditional Li-ion batteries, and to the low cost of raw
sulfur. However, their rapid capacity fade has been one of the key barriers for
their further improvement. It is well accepted that the major degradation
mechanisms of S-cathodes include precipitation of nonconductive Li2S2 and Li2S,
and poly-sulfide shuttle effects [1]. One of the main approaches to solve the
problems has been to confine the active sulfur within conductive materials to
trap the polysulfide species inside the electrode, and at the same time, facilitate
the electron conduction to it [2].
The development of sulfur-carbon composite materials has shown remarkable
progress in the performance of Li-S battery, a high active material loading (>70
wt%), high specific capacity (> 1200mAhg -1 ), and excellent cycle stability (< 10%
capacity loss over 100 cycles) [3]. For this purpose, carbon materials derived
biomass represent a good alternative, since they commonly possess high
surface area and pore volume, and are highly scalable with low cost.
In the present work, a cathode consisting of carbon obtained corncobs at a high
temperature and S is proposed for use in a Li–S battery. Carbon derived
corncobs has high surface area (1360 m 2 g -1 ) with pores in the range of
micropores (3g -1 . The carbon is obtained by pyrolysis with a heating ramp until
1100 ºC, allowing an enhance resistivity of 4.42 Ω-cm. The electronic conductivity
and porosity of this carbon gives to the composites a good electronic and ionic
transport properties.
[1] J. Yan, X. Liu, B. Li, Adv. Sci. 3 (2016) 1600101.
[2] C. S. Kim et al. Electrochem. Commun. 32 (2013) 35–38.
[3] M. Arumugam, F. Yongzhu, and S. Yu-Sheng, 46 (2013) 1125–1134.
[4] L. García-González, Carbon derived biomass for cathode composite
materials for Li-S batteries, Thesis, BUAP, November, (2016).