Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon with High Degree of Graphitization Derived from Silk Cocoon for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Silk cocoon derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon (NPC) material was prepared via a facile and economical synchronous activation-catalytic graphitization approach with ZnCl2 as chemical activator and FeCl3 center dot 6H(2)O as graphitization catalyst. The as-prepared NPC with a high graphitization degree and large surface area of 1058 m(2) g(-1) was employed as host matrix to accommodate sulfur for lithium-sulfur batteries. The resulting NPC/sulfur (NPC/S) composite shows an improved rate capability and superior cycling performance with an extremely low decay rate of 0.046% per cycle up to 200 cycles at 2C. This work proposes a feasible preparation strategy of porous carbon materials originated from biomass for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries.