Carbonized waste milk powders as cathodes for stable lithium–sulfur batteries with ultra-large capacity and high initial coulombic efficiency

Rabia Khatoon; Sanam Attique; Rumin Liu; Sajid Rauf; Nasir Ali; Luhong Zhang; Yu-Jia Zeng; Yichuan Guo; Yusuf Valentino Kaneti; Jongbeom Na; Haichao Tang; Hongwen Chen; Yang Tian; Jianguo Lu

Green Energy & Environment (Oct 2022)

Carbonized waste milk powders as cathodes for stable lithium–sulfur batteries with ultra-large capacity and high initial coulombic efficiency

Rabia Khatoon,
Sanam Attique,
Rumin Liu,
Sajid Rauf,
Nasir Ali,
Luhong Zhang,
Yu-Jia Zeng,
Yichuan Guo,
Yusuf Valentino Kaneti,
Jongbeom Na,
Haichao Tang,
Hongwen Chen,
Yang Tian,
Jianguo Lu

Affiliations

Rabia Khatoon: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Sanam Attique: Institute for Composites Science Innovation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Rumin Liu: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Sajid Rauf: Hubei Collaborative Innovation Centre for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Faculty of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430062, China
Nasir Ali: State Key Laboratory for Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Devices, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Luhong Zhang: College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
Yu-Jia Zeng: College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China; Corresponding authors.
Yichuan Guo: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Yusuf Valentino Kaneti: International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan; School of Chemical Engineering & Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia; Corresponding authors.
Jongbeom Na: School of Chemical Engineering & Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
Haichao Tang: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Hongwen Chen: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Yang Tian: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Jianguo Lu: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China; Corresponding authors.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 7, no. 5
pp. 1071 – 1083

Abstract

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To explore the natural resources as sustainable precursors offers a family of green materials. The use of bio-waste precursors especially the remaining from food processing is a scalable, highly abundant, and cost-effective strategy. Exploring waste materials is highly important especially for new materials discovery in emerging energy storage technologies such as lithium sulfur batteries (LSBs). Herein, waste milk powder is carbonized and constructed as the sulfur host with the hollow micro-/mesoporous framework, and the resulting carbonized milk powder and sulfur (CMP/S) composites are employed as cathodes for LSBs. It is revealed that the hollow micro-/mesoporous CMP/S framework can not only accommodate the volume expansion but also endow smooth pathways for the fast diffusion of electrons and Li-ions, leading to both high capacity and long cycling stability. The CMP/S composite electrode with 56 wt% loaded sulfur exhibits a remarkable initial capacity of 1596 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, corresponding to 95% of the theoretical capacity. Even at a rate of 1 C, it maintains a high capacity of 730 mAh g−1 with a capacity retention of 72.6% after 500 cycles, demonstrating a very low capacity fading of only 0.05% per cycle. Importantly, the Coulombic efficiency is always higher than 96% during all the cycles. The only used source material is expired waste milk powders in our proposal. We believe that this “trash to treasure” approach will open up a new way for the utilization of waste material as environmentally safe and high performance electrodes for advanced LSBs.

Published in Green Energy & Environment

ISSN: 2468-0257 (Online)
Publisher: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Country of publisher: China
LCC subjects: Technology: Mechanical engineering and machinery: Renewable energy sources; Science: Biology (General): Ecology
Website: https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/green-energy-and-environment/

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