Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Construction and Testing of Coin Cells of Lithium Ion Batteries
Published on: August 2, 2012
Construction of three-dimensional ordered porous carbon bulk networks for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries
Hangyu Gu1, Rong Zhang1, Ping Wang1
1Center of Nanomaterials for Renewable Energy (CNRE), State Key Lab of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
Abstract:
In order to suppress the shuttling of soluble lithium polysulfides in Li-S batteries and increase the conductivity of the sulfur cathode, here we report the design and synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) highly ordered porous carbon bulk network (PCBNs), using silica (SiO2) nanospheres as removable hard templates and soluble starch as carbon source. After carbonization and template removal, the as-prepared PCBNs composed of interconnected hollow carbon balls exhibit large surface area (447.4 m2/g) and large pore volume (1.567 cm3/g), high graphitization degree and robust framework. Serving as an efficient sulfur host, PCBNs supported sulfur cathode (S@PCBNs with sulfur content of 72 wt%) delivers a high discharge capacity of 760 mA h/g after 150 cycles at 0.1 C and 455 mA h/g after 400 cycles at 1 C. The superior lithium storage properties is attributed to the novel hierarchical microstructure of the PCBNs, in which the large hollow space not only allows high loading of sulfur but also efficiently accommodates the large volumetric expansion. Moreover, the interconnected PCBNs with high conductivity can spatially confine the shuttling of soluble polysulfides and enhance the redox reaction kinetics.
Related Concept Videos
Batteries and Fuel Cells
The Sulfur Cycle
Network Covalent Solids
To break or to melt a covalent network solid, covalent bonds must be broken. Because covalent bonds are relatively strong, covalent network solids are typically...
Sulfur Assimilation
DC Battery
Protein Networks
These interactions can be represented through maps depicting protein-protein interaction networks, represented as nodes and edges. Nodes are circles that are representative of a protein,...

