Abstract：
Lithium-sulfur batteries are a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries as they can potentially offer significantly increased capacities and energy densities. The ever-increasing global battery market demonstrates that there will be an ongoing demand for cost effective battery electrode materials. Materials derived from waste products can simultaneously address two of the greatest challenges of today, i.e., waste management and the requirement to develop sustainable materials. In this study, we detail the carbonisation of gelatin from blue shark and chitin from prawns, both of which are currently considered as waste biproducts of the seafood industry. The chemical and physical properties of the resulting carbons are compared through a correlation of results from structural characterisation techniques, including electron imaging, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and nitrogen gas adsorption. We investigated the application of the resulting carbons as sulfur-hosting electrode materials for use in lithium-sulfur batteries. Through comprehensive electrochemical characterisation, we demonstrate that value added porous carbons, derived from marine waste are promising electrode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. Both samples demonstrated impressive capacity retention when galvanostatically cycled at a rate of C/5 for 500 cycles. This study highlights the importance of looking towards waste products as sustainable feeds for battery material production.
摘要：
锂-硫电池是锂离子电池的有希望的替代品,因为它们可以潜在地提供显著增加的容量和能量密度。不断增长的全球电池市场表明，对具有成本效益的电池电极材料的需求将持续存在。来自废物的材料可以同时解决当今的两个最大挑战，即，废物管理和开发可持续材料的要求。在这项研究中,我们详细介绍了蓝鲨的明胶和虾的甲壳质的碳化，这两种产品目前都被认为是海鲜行业的废弃副产品。所得碳的化学和物理性质通过结构表征技术的结果的相关性进行比较，包括电子成像,X射线衍射,拉曼光谱和氮气吸附。我们研究了所得碳作为用于锂硫电池的硫承载电极材料的应用。通过全面的电化学表征，我们证明了增值的多孔碳，源自海洋废物是锂硫电池的有前途的电极材料。当以C/5的速率恒电流循环500次循环时,两个样品均表现出令人印象深刻的容量保持。这项研究强调了将废物作为电池材料生产的可持续饲料的重要性。
