Yeast-derived active carbon as sustainable high-performance electrodes for lithium–oxygen batteries

Here, we report a high performance biomass-derived cathode material. Compared to traditional carbon materials, biomass-derived carbon, prepared through the pyrolysis of yeast followed by activation with KOH, shows a great improvement in both catalytic activity and stability. A lithium–oxygen battery that uses the yeast-derived carbon as its cathode presents a discharge capacity of 22,100 mAh g⁻¹ at 570 mA g⁻¹, and sustains more than 500 cycles at a fixed capacity of 1360 mAh g⁻¹. Moreover, the rate capability reaches as high as 3390 mA g⁻¹, a value which is nearly an order of magnitude higher than that of conventional lithium–oxygen batteries. This work will provide a new direction for choosing cathode material for energy conversion and storage.