Highly ordered nitrogen-rich mesoporous carbon derived from biomass waste for high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries

A novel highly ordered nitrogen-rich mesoporous carbon (HNMC) was prepared by pyrolysis of biomass waste (gelatin) and a simple template process, and sulfur–HNMC composite based on HNMC was synthesized for lithium–sulfur batteries by a melt-diffusion method. It is found that the elemental sulfur was homogeneously dispersed inside the meso-pores of HNMC based on the analyses. Electrochemical tests reveal that the sulfur–HNMC (53.3 wt% sulfur) composite shows high rate capability and long cycling stability as cathode materials. The sulfur–HNMC (53.3 wt% sulfur) composite cathode exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 1209 mAh g−1 and retains as high as 600 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 1 C. Moreover, the cathode also presents a long term cycling stability up to 300 cycles even at 3 C. The results illustrate that the high rate capability and long term cycling stability of sulfur cathode can be enhanced significantly by encapsulating sulfur into the highly ordered nitrogen-rich mesoporous carbon nanostructure, and the HNMC nanostructure would be a promising carbon matrix for high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries.