Abstract
Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered as one of the most promising energy storage systems for next-generation electric vehicles because of their high-energy density. However, the poor cyclic stability, especially at a high sulfur loading, is the major obstacles retarding their practical use. Inspired by the nacre structure of an abalone, a similar configuration consisting of layered carbon nanotube (CNT) matrix and compactly embedded sulfur is designed as the cathode for Li-S batteries, which are realized by a well-designed unidirectional freeze-drying approach. The compact and lamellar configuration with closely contacted neighboring CNT layers and the strong interaction between the highly conductive network and polysulfides have realized a high sulfur loading with significantly restrained polysulfide shuttling, resulting in a superior cyclic stability and an excellent rate performance for the produced Li-S batteries. Typically, with a sulfur loading of 5 mg cm−2, the assembled batteries demonstrate discharge capacities of 1236 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, 498 mAh g−1 at 2 C and moreover, when the sulfur loading is further increased to 10 mg cm−2 coupling with a carbon-coated separator, a superhigh areal capacity of 11.0 mAh cm−2 is achieved.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1800384 |
Journal | Advanced Science |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 Jun |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Li-polysulfide batteries
- Li-sulfur batteries
- carbon nanotube sheets
- high sulfur loading
- nacre-like materials
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Materials Science(all)
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)
- Engineering(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)