Sulfur embedded in one-dimensional French fries-like hierarchical porous carbon derived from a metal-organic framework for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries suffer from poor cycling stability mainly caused by one of their own drawbacks, namely, the shuttle effect, which makes them far from conquering the marketplace. To tackle this problem, a novel French fries-like hierarchical porous carbon (FLHPC) with a one-dimensional (1D) structure was constructed by carbonizing an aluminum metal-organic framework (Al-MOF). In FLHPC, sulfur was infiltrated mainly into the micro- and mesopores, while macro-pores were used to facilitate the transportation of Li ions (Li+). On the basis of this concept, even without LiNO3 as additive, Li-S batteries not only delivered a high initial discharge capacity of nearly 1200 mA h g(-1) at 0.1 C (1 C = 1672 mA h g(-1)) but also showed good cycling stability with a capacity retention of 68% at 0.5 C after 200 cycles. In addition, when the capacity rate (C-rate) was increased to 2 C, a high discharge capacity of 763 mA h g(-1) was obtained after 20 cycles, proving their excellent C-rate performance.