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We report herein a hierarchically structured sulfur−carbon (S/C) nanocomposite material as the high surface-area cathode for rechargeable lithium batteries. A porous carbon with a uniform distribution of mesopores of 7.3 nm has been synthesized through a soft-template synthesis method. The potassium hydroxide activation of this mesoporous carbon results in a bimodal porous carbon with added microporosity of less than 2 nm to the existing mesopores without deterioration of the integrity of the original mesoporous carbon. Elemental sulfur has been loaded to the micropores through a solution infiltration method. The resulted S/C composites with various loading level of sulfur have a high surface areas and large internal porosities. These materials have been tested as novel cathodes for Li/S batteries. The results show that the cyclability and the utilization of sulfur in the Li/S batteries have been significantly improved. The large internal porosity and surface area of the micromesoporous carbon is essential for the high utilization of sulfur.
Liang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.