Working Mechanisms and Structure Engineering of Renewable Biomass‐Derived Materials for Advanced Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries: A Review

Abstract

Lithium‐sulfur (Li−S) batteries have attracted attention in the field of energy storage due to their high energy density and theoretical capacity. However, there are still some obstacles to achieve commercial applications such as large volume expansion of sulfur, low electrical conductivity, the growth of lithium dendrites, and the polysulfide shuttle effect. Through continuous research on Li−S batteries, renewable biomass materials have been discovered by scholars and scientists due to their sustainable development, low cost, and extensive sources. The results showed that renewable biomass‐derived carbons had outstanding advantages such as high specific surface area and large pore volume, as well as inherent heteroatom doping after being applied to Li−S batteries, which had a significant effect on improving the electrochemical performance. This Review summarizes the research progress of Li−S batteries in renewable biomass materials in recent years, starting from three aspects: biomass carbon‐sulfur composite cathodes, biomass modified separators, and biomass independent flexible carbon interlayers. Firstly, the Review summarizes its physical barrier and adsorption mechanism (the effect of various porous structures), chemical reaction and adsorption mechanism, catalysis and conversion mechanism. Then, it classifies materials based on the source of renewable biomass as well as elaborating and analyzing the structures, mechanism, and performance among them. Finally, the Review summarized the shortages in this field, as well as the challenges and opportunities faced. The authors hope that this Review will have a certain reference value for the development of various biomasses for high performance Li−S batteries, and will inspire more scholars to devote themselves to the research of biomass materials for Li−S batteries.

Environmental Solid Waste‐derived Carbon for Advanced Rechargeable Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries: A Review

“…The formation of the predominance of the internal pores of the coconut shell carbon (CSC) would adsorb small molecular species. [36,60] This distinctive characteristic drives CSC as an ideal sulfur host and confirms that CSC is highly efficient to trap the soluble polysulfides in lithium-sulfur batteries. Generally, coconut shell is low-cost and renewable agro-wastes were used as a starting material in the synthesis of hierarchical activated carbons via hydrothermal, KOH-activation, and carbonization techniques.…”

“…Figure 8a shows the preparation of CSC and S@CSC by melt infiltration method. The formation of the predominance of the internal pores of the coconut shell carbon (CSC) would adsorb small molecular species [36,60] . This distinctive characteristic drives CSC as an ideal sulfur host and confirms that CSC is highly efficient to trap the soluble polysulfides in lithium‐sulfur batteries.…”

“…[34] Mostly the carbonization temperature range between 400-800 °C, sometimes reaching 1000 °C, and the activation temperature range from 600-900 °C. [35][36] The carbon derived from the solid waste/biomass has potential applications in wastewater treatment, air pollution, hydrogen storage, energy conversion, and storage. Huan wen Wang and co-workers have prepared a carbon material with a high specific surface area and superior electrical conductivity for energy storage applications.…”

“…Consequently, various carbon materials would be obtained from the biomass such as porous carbon, activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene with an appropriate synthesis path [34] . Mostly the carbonization temperature range between 400–800 °C, sometimes reaching 1000 °C, and the activation temperature range from 600–900 °C [35–36] …”

Metal‐Organic‐Framework as Novel Electrode Materials for Hybrid Battery‐Supercapacitor Applications

“…[44,45] Recently, MOFs have proven to be an efficient electrode material to improve the performance of supercapattery devices. [46][47][48][49][50] It attracts the interest of researchers as a new type of electrode material. MOF is nano porous regular crystalline material consisting of a repeated array of metal ions or clusters surrounded by organic linkers as depicted in Figure 3a.…”