MnO2 nanoflowers grown on a polypropylene separator for use as both a barrier and an accelerator of polysulfides for high-performance Li-S batteries

Yinze Zuo; Tao Yan; Yuejin Zhu; Jian Zhou; Weiming Su; Xingling Shi; Yuefeng Tang; Yanfeng Chen

doi:10.1039/d0dt01435d

MnO₂ nanoflowers grown on a polypropylene separator for use as both a barrier and an accelerator of polysulfides for high-performance Li-S batteries

Dalton Trans. 2020 Jul 21;49(28):9719-9727. doi: 10.1039/d0dt01435d.

Authors

Yinze Zuo¹, Tao Yan¹, Yuejin Zhu², Jian Zhou¹, Weiming Su¹, Xingling Shi³, Yuefeng Tang⁴, Yanfeng Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. yftang@nju.edu.cn jimgrange@sina.com and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
² National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. yftang@nju.edu.cn jimgrange@sina.com and Institute of Advanced Synthesis, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China.
⁴ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. yftang@nju.edu.cn jimgrange@sina.com and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China and SuZhou Sun Sources Nano Science and Technology Co. Ltd, ChangShu, SuZhou 215513, China.

PMID: 32613991
DOI: 10.1039/d0dt01435d

Abstract

The separator modification has been considered to be the most effective approach to obtain high-stability lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). Therefore, a separator with an ultralight modification layer plays an indispensable role to obtain LSBs with high specific capacity and high energy density. Herein, we report a novel modified separator with an ultrathin and lightweight MnO2 functional layer (500 nm, 0.1 mg cm-2), which was grown in situ on a Celgard-2400 separator (MnO2@PP) via a facile hydrothermal reaction. The MnO2@PP separator effectively suppressed the shuttle of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and improved the redox process. In addition, the strong chemical affinity of MnO2 for LiPSs was also verified by first-principles calculations. Benefiting from these advantages, the cell with the MnO2@PP separator delivered a high rate performance of 759 mA h g-1 at 2.5 C and an initial capacity of 825 mA h g-1 with a retention of 684 mA h g-1 after 400 cycles at 1.25 C. Even with a high sulfur loading of 6 mg cm-2, the obtained cell exhibited a reversible capacity of 747 mA h g-1 after 150 cycles.