Preparation of lead-coated sweet sorghum stalk–based carbon material and its electrochemical performance

Sweet sorghum stalks can be utilized for the preparation of carbon materials, which can then be applied as negative electrode materials in lead–carbon batteries. In this study, sweet sorghum stalks were pretreated with 5 wt.% H₃PO₄ and subsequently carbonized at 550 °C for 105 min. Subsequently, the electrochemical properties of lead-coated sorghum stalk–based carbon materials, prepared under varying reduction durations, were investigated through EIS and CV tests. On this basis, the negative electrode materials, which consisted of the lead-coated sorghum stalk–based carbon material (under the reduction time of 45 min) and physically ground comparison materials, were assembled into simulated lead–carbon batteries. The charge–discharge performance of these batteries was evaluated using a charge–discharge tester. The initial discharge capacities of the two materials were 73.0 mAh/g and 57.24 mAh/g, respectively. After 150 cycles, the capacity retention ratios were 71.8% and 57.5%, respectively. These results indicate that the simulated lead–carbon battery with the newly prepared carbon material exhibits superior electrochemical performance.