Biomass-Derived Lenthionine Enhanced by Radical Receptor for Rechargeable Lithium Battery.

Organic compounds with tunable structures and high capacities are promising electrode materials for batteries. Cyclic organosulfide (i. e., lenthionine), as a natural material that can provide excellent ratio of effective atoms (S) and non-efficient atoms (C, H, and others), has a high theoretical specific capacity of 853.6 mAh g -1 . However, the multiphase transformation causes rapid capacity decay and hysteresis of charge/discharge voltage plateaus. To overcome these issues, a receptor, phenyl disulfide (PDS), was introduced to truncate subsequent transformations directly from the source and change the reaction path, inhibit the capacity decay, and improve the cycling stability. After 500 cycles, the capacity retention was 81.1 % with PDS, which was in sharp contrast to that (35.6 %) of the control cell. This study helps to understand the electrochemistry mechanism of biomass-derived lenthionine used as a high-capacity cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries, also offering a strategy to overcome its inherent issues.