Rib-like hierarchical porous carbon as reservoir for long-life and high-rate Li-Te batteries

Lithium-Tellurium (Li-Te) batteries are regarded as a prospective candidate for novel electrochemical energy-storage technologies on account of their inundatory advantages in superior volume capacity density and excellent electrochemical stability. Finding accommodation material of Te is the key issue for Li-Te batteries. Here, rib-like hierarchical porous carbon (RHPC) derived from lotus seedpod as host for tellurium is synthesized by facile hydrothermal-pyrolyzation method. Benefiting from the effective accommodation of RHPC reservoir, together with the preeminent electronic conductivity of Te, this unique RHPC/Te electrode is able to deliver a reversible capacity of 288 mA h g(-1) (1797 mA h cm(-3)) at 2C and keep stability for a ultra-long cycling number as long as 3600 cycles, and could undergo a high current density of 10C and get capacity of 196 mA h g(-1) (1223 mA h cm(-3)), showing especially excellent performance for Li-Te batteries. We believe that the RHPC/Te electrode will exert great influence in Li-Te batteries. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.