High Sulfur Content of Mesoporous Activated Carbon Composite Derived from Water Hyacinth

Otong Nurhilal, Suci Winarsih, Sahrul Hidayat, Dadan Sumiarsa and Risdiana Risdiana
Additional contact information
Otong Nurhilal: Study Program of Biotechnology, Postgraduate School, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jl. Dipatiukur No. 35, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
Suci Winarsih: Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia
Sahrul Hidayat: Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia
Dadan Sumiarsa: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia
Risdiana Risdiana: Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-8

Abstract: Cathode composites with high sulfur content have become a concern to develop because they can improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries. The high sulfur content in the composite can be obtained from the carbon matrix, which has a high surface area and high electrical conductivity. Activated carbon made from biomass waste can be used as a carbon matrix due to its high surface area and ease of synthesis. In this study, activated carbon was prepared from water hyacinth (ACWH-600), which was carbonized at a temperature of 600 °C with a ZnCl 2 activator. Activated-carbon–sulfur composite (ACWH-600/S) was synthesized by mixing activated carbon and sulfur in a ratio of 1:3. The characterizations performed for ACWH-600 and ACWH-600/S were N2 desorption–adsorption to determine the surface area, SEM to determine surface morphology, XRD to determine graphite structure, thermogravimetric analysis test to determine the sulfur content in the composite, and four-line probe conductivity to measure electrical conductivity at room temperature. The surface area, total pore volume, and pore diameter of ACWH were 642.39 m 2 g −1 , 0.714 cm 3 g −1 , and 2.22 nm, respectively, while the surface area, total pore volume, and pore diameter of ACWH-600/S were 29.431 m 2 g −1 , 0.038 cm 3 g −1 , and 2.54 nm. The conductivity value of ACWH-600 was 3.93 × 10 −2 S/cm, while for ACWH-600/S, the conductivity value was 2.24 × 10 −4 S/cm. The decrease in conductivity value after activated carbon added sulfur indicated the success of synthesizing a carbon matrix from water hyacinth with high sulfur content. The high sulfur content of 58 wt%, together with the acceptable conductivity value of composite ACWH-600/S, provide an opportunity to apply these composites as cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.

Keywords: activated carbon; water hyacinth; composite; conductivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12880/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12880/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12880-:d:684391

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().