Silica-depleted rice hull ash for high-performance and stable Li-S batteries

Unlike current lithium-ion batteries are reaching a limit of ~600 Wh/kg -1 that is insufficient for newer electric vehicles and energy storage systems, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries can offer a high theoretical specific capacity (1675 mAh/g -1 ) and energy density (2600 Wh/kg -1 ). However, Li-S batteries experience the volume issue based on density differences between S (charged ) and Li 2 S (discharged) during cycling. Our goal is to introduce a biowaste and very cost-effective silica-depleted rice hull ash (SDRHA) which is a porous material (BET SSA: ~500 m 2 /g -1 ). SDRHA can disperse SPAN and introduce a high specific surface area carbon-silica nanocomposite that can mitigate the volume change during cycling.