ABSTRACT
Porous carbon is considered an attractive host material for high-energy sulfur electrodes. This study concerns the design of a porous carbon-based sulfur electrode for the formulation of high-energy Li-S batteries. The porous carbon is impregnated with up to 80â vol.% of sulfur and a reduction in both the conductive agent and binder content. Therefore, less solvent can be used during slurry casting to inhibit crack formation following electrode drying. In addition, the utilization of two distinct electrically conducting networks enables reduced battery polarization, resulting in a battery with a capacity of 690â mAh g-1 (even after 100â cycles). Finally, pouch cells are prepared to characterize the practical performance of the optimized cathode. This yields a capacity of 741â mAh and a cathode energy density of 1001â Wh kg-1 . These findings are expected to guide the further development of high-energy-density cathode materials for Li-S batteries.