Enhanced Adsorptions to Polysulfides on Graphene-Supported BN Nanosheets with Excellent Li-S Battery Performance in a Wide Temperature Range

ACS Nano. 2018 Nov 27;12(11):11120-11129. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.8b05534. Epub 2018 Oct 29.

Abstract

For Li-S batteries, the catalysis for S redox reaction is indispensable. A lot of multifunctional sulfur electrode support materials with have been investigated widely. However, most of these studies were carried out at room temperature, and the interaction between different components in the matrix is not often paid enough attention. Here, we report a graphene supported BN nanosheet composite in which the synergistic effect between BN and graphene greatly enhanced the adsorption for polysulfides, thus leading to excellent performance in a wide temperature range. When used as a host material of sulfur, it can make the Li-S battery apply to a wide range of temperatures, from -40 to 70 °C, delivering a high utilization of sulfur, an excellent rate capability, and outstanding cycling life. The capacity can stabilized at 888 mAh g-1 at 2 C after 300 cycles with a capacity attenuation of <0.04% per cycle at 70 °C, and the battery can deliver a capacity above 650 mAh g-1 at -40 °C.

Keywords: Li−S battery; enhanced adsorptions; high temperatures; low temperatures; synergistic effect.