Boosting the Electrochemical Performance of Li-S Batteries with a Dual Polysulfides Confinement Strategy

Yu Yao; Wanlin Feng; Minglong Chen; Xiongwu Zhong; Xiaojun Wu; Haibin Zhang; Yan Yu

doi:10.1002/smll.201802516

Boosting the Electrochemical Performance of Li-S Batteries with a Dual Polysulfides Confinement Strategy

Small. 2018 Oct;14(42):e1802516. doi: 10.1002/smll.201802516. Epub 2018 Sep 19.

Authors

Yu Yao¹, Wanlin Feng², Minglong Chen¹, Xiongwu Zhong¹, Xiaojun Wu¹, Haibin Zhang², Yan Yu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China.
² Innovation Research Team for Advanced Ceramics, Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.

PMID: 30230672
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201802516

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted more and more attention because they represent one of the most promising candidates to satisfy emerging energy storage demands. The biggest challenge regarding the application of the Li-S battery is to suppress the polysulfide shuttle while maintaining a high sulfur loading mass. Here, a dual polysulfide confinement strategy is designed by confinement of sulfur in polydopamine-coated MXene nanosheets (denoted as S@Mxe@PDA) that performs as a high-performance cathode for Li-S cells owing to their inherently high underlying metallic conductivity and chemical bonding and strong chemical adsorption to lithium polysulfides (LPs). This dual LPs confinement strategy is supported by the results of density functional theory calculations. It is demonstrated that the S@Mxe@PDA cathode exhibits outstanding electrochemical properties, including high reversible capacity (1044 mAh g^-1 after 150 cycles at 0.2 C), superior rate capability (624 mAh g^-1 at 6 C) and excellent cycling stability (556 mAh g^-1 after 330 cycles at 0.5 C with 4.4 mg cm^-2 sulfur loading). This work offers a facile and effective method for boosting Li-S batteries into practical applications.

Keywords: absorption; chemical bonding; lithium-sulfur batteries; polydopamine; polysulfides.

Abstract

Grants and funding