Atomic Layer Deposition-Assisted Construction of Binder-Free Ni@N-Doped Carbon Nanospheres Films as Advanced Host for Sulfur Cathode

Jun Liu; Aixiang Wei; Guoxiang Pan; Qinqin Xiong; Fang Chen; Shenghui Shen; Xinhui Xia

doi:10.1007/s40820-019-0295-8

Atomic Layer Deposition-Assisted Construction of Binder-Free Ni@N-Doped Carbon Nanospheres Films as Advanced Host for Sulfur Cathode

Nanomicro Lett. 2019 Aug 2;11(1):64. doi: 10.1007/s40820-019-0295-8.

Authors

Jun Liu¹, Aixiang Wei^{2

3}, Guoxiang Pan⁴, Qinqin Xiong⁵, Fang Chen⁶, Shenghui Shen⁷, Xinhui Xia^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China. gdutliu@gdut.edu.cn.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Information Science, Xinhua College of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510520, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Materials Chemistry, Huzhou University, Huzhou, 313000, People's Republic of China.
⁵ College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People's Republic of China. helloxxh@zju.edu.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, People's Republic of China. helloxxh@zju.edu.cn.

Abstract

Rational design of hybrid carbon host with high electrical conductivity and strong adsorption toward soluble lithium polysulfides is the main challenge for achieving high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). Herein, novel binder-free Ni@N-doped carbon nanospheres (N-CNSs) films as sulfur host are firstly synthesized via a facile combined hydrothermal-atomic layer deposition method. The cross-linked multilayer N-CNSs films can effectively enhance the electrical conductivity of electrode and provide physical blocking "dams" toward the soluble long-chain polysulfides. Moreover, the doped N heteroatoms and superficial NiO layer on Ni layer can work synergistically to suppress the shuttle of lithium polysulfides by effective chemical interaction/adsorption. In virtue of the unique composite architecture and reinforced dual physical and chemical adsorption to the soluble polysulfides, the obtained Ni@N-CNSs/S electrode is demonstrated with enhanced rate performance (816 mAh g^-1 at 2 C) and excellent long cycling life (87% after 200 cycles at 0.1 C), much better than N-CNSs/S electrode and other carbon/S counterparts. Our proposed design strategy offers a promising prospect for construction of advanced sulfur cathodes for applications in LSBs and other energy storage systems.

Keywords: Atomic layer deposition; Lithium–sulfur batteries; N-doped carbon nanospheres; Nickel; Sulfur cathode.