Fabrication of sulfur-impregnated porous carbon nanostructured electrodes via dual-mode activation for lithium–sulfur batteries

•Porous carbon (PC) is fabricated by dual-activation process of PVdF-HFP.•As-synthesized PC has an extremely large surface area over 2000 m2 g−1.•The PC was composited with sulfur (PC/S) via melt diffusion process.•The PC/S electrodes demonstrate over 730 mA h g−1 of capacity after 100 cycles.

We report the facile synthesis of a porous-carbon (PC) nanostructure via a dual-mode activation process. Its PC nanostructure, which was activated via the release of HF and NaOH during a pyrolysis of Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene), provided a large surface area above 2000 m2 g−1. The fabricated PC was composited with sulfur via melt diffusion (PC/S), and the resulting compound was evaluated with galvanostatic cycling for use in applications of lithium–sulfur batteries. The PC/S electrode demonstrated over 730 mA h g−1 of reversible capacity after 100 cycles.

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