Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Journal of Materials Science.

Supporting Information for

Highly porous nitrogen doped seaweed carbon for high-performance Li-S batteries

Luke Hencza, Xingxing Gu*ab, Xiaosong Zhoua, Wayde Martensc, Shanqing Zhang*a,

a Center for Clean Environment and Energy, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222, Australia.

b College of Environment and Resources, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, China

c Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology QLD 4001, Australia

* for correspondence. Tel: +61 (0)7 5552 8155; Fax: +61 (0)7 5552 8067

Email address: ;

Fig. S1 The SEM images of seaweed in different resolution ratios

Table S1 ICP-OES metal ion concentrations for pristine seaweed and SWC samples.

Fe (mg/g) / Ca (mg/g) / Mg (mg/g)
Cleaned Seaweed / 0.06218 / 12.929 / 6.481
SWC / 0.03408 / 0.2095 / 0.3502

Table S2 Physical characteristics of SWC and SWC-S samples

Sample / BET surface area
(m2/g) / Total pore volume
(cm3/g)
SWC / 1510.71 / 1.48
SWC-S / 38.64 / 0.035

Table S3 The elements contents calculated from the XPS characterizations

Sample / C / O / N / S
SWC / 92.43 / 5.34 / 2.23 / -
SWC-S / 88.51% / 2.48 / 1.05 / 7.96

Table S4 Electrochemical performances comparison with different biochar-S composites cathode and N-doped porous carbon-sulfur composite cathodes

Carbon Type / Sulfur content in the composite (wt%) / Initial discharge capacity (mAh/g) / Reversible discharge capacity at nth cycle (mAh/g) / Capacity decay per cycle (%) / C-Rate (1C=1675 mAh/g) / Reference Number
SWC / 68.3 / 893.5 / 540.6,300th / 0.13 / 1 / This work
Pig Bone / 63 / 1265 / 643, 50th / 0.98 / 0.23 / [1]
Crab Shell / 65 / 1230 / ≈810, 200th / 0.17 / 0.2 / [2]
Fish Scale / 58.8 / 1039 / 605, 70th / 0.59 / 1 / [3]
Eggshell Membrane / 60 / 1002 / 860, 150th / 0.09 / 0.1 / [4]
Bamboo / 50 / 961 / 550, 150th / 0.28 / 0.5 / [5]
Pomelo Peel / 60 / 1258 / 750, 100th / 0.4 / 0.2 / [6]
Poplar Catkin / ≈72 / 1173 / 810, 100th / 0.31 / 0.1 / [7]
Banana Peel / 65 / ≈1000 / 570, 500th / 0.086 / 1 / [8]
N-Doped Hollow CNF / 77.5 / 1170 / 590, 200th / 0.25 / 0.5 / [9]
N-Doped Porous CNF Webs / 60 / 1564 / 700, 45th / 1.22 / 0.1 / [10]
N-Doped CNT/Graphene Sandwich / 52.6 / 1152 / 880, 80th / 0.295 / 1 / [11]
N-Doped Polypyrrole Derived CNT / 54 / 1341 / 933, 50th / 0.608 / 1 / [12]
S/N-Doped MWCNT / ≈60 / 840 / 625, 100th / 0.253 / 0.2 / [13]
Nanoporous N-Doped Graphene / 69.3 / 1110 / 781.8,100th / 0.26 / 1 / [14]
Urea Derived N-Doped Graphene / 61.2 / ≈800 / 433, 100th / 0.459 / 0.06 / [15]
Ternary Layered N-Doped Graphene/Sulfur/Polyaniline / - / 1277.3 / 694, 100th / 0.457 / 0.5 / [16]
N-Doped Graphene / 60 / 789 / 347, 2000th / 0.028 / 2 / [17]

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