Ion-confinement in textile-derived carbon cloth for high-areal-capacity Li–S batteries

Developing stable lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries with high areal capacities is a prerequisite for their commercialization. However, suppressing the polysulfide shuttle and maintaining efficient ion transport under high sulfur loadings (> 10 mg/cm2) remains a challenge. Here, a facile, scalable, and sustainable one-step carbonization strategy was developed to upcycle waste textiles into high-performance carbon cloth (HPC) with tunable graphitization. The optimized HPC950 framework features a unique, ordered three-dimensional‌ (3D) conductive carbon fiber network and a porous architecture. Benefiting from the synergistic integration of high intrinsic conductivity and a specialized pore size with “ion-confinement effect”, the resulting electrode effectively mitigates polysulfide shuttling while ensuring rapid Li+ transport. Consequently, the HPC950/S cathode shows stable cycling, retaining a capacity of 4.89 mAh/cm2 at a sulfur loading of 8.51 mg/cm2 over 230 cycles and 6.89 mAh/cm2 at 10.34 mg/cm2. The practical viability is further validated by powering a 33 light-emitting-diode (LED) array with high-load coin cells. This cost-effective and sustainable textile-derived carbon cloth provides a compelling pathway for next-generation high-performance Li–S batteries.