| abstract |
Provided is a sulfur cathode for a metal-sulfur battery, containing a humic acid-derived foam, composed of multiple pores and pore walls, and sulfur or polysulfide impregnated into the pores or deposited on pore walls, wherein the pore walls contain single-layer or few-layer humic acid-derived hexagonal carbon atomic planes or sheets. The few-layer hexagonal carbon atomic planes or sheets have 2-10 layers of stacked hexagonal carbon atomic planes having an inter-plane spacing d 002 from 0.3354 nm to 0.60 nm. The hexagonal carbon atomic planes contain 0.01% to 25% by weight of non-carbon elements. The humic acid is selected from oxidized humic acid, reduced humic acid, fluorinated humic acid, chlorinated humic acid, brominated humic acid, iodized humic acid, hydrogenated humic acid, nitrogenated humic acid, doped humic acid, chemically functionalized humic acid, or a combination thereof. |