In situ composition of Thienothiophene-based covalent organic framework on carbon nanotube as a host for high performance Li-S batteries

Xiaoxue Li; Kangkang Jia; Yuansheng Luo; Guimei Huang; Jingwei Zhang; Cheng Zhong; Rongxing He; Linna Zhu; Fei Wu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.132

In situ composition of Thienothiophene-based covalent organic framework on carbon nanotube as a host for high performance Li-S batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Aug:643:563-573. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.132. Epub 2023 Mar 24.

Authors

Xiaoxue Li¹, Kangkang Jia¹, Yuansheng Luo¹, Guimei Huang¹, Jingwei Zhang¹, Cheng Zhong², Rongxing He³, Linna Zhu⁴, Fei Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energy, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China.
² Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials, Department of Chemistry Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China.
⁴ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energy, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: lnzhu@swu.edu.cn.
⁵ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energy, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: feiwu610@swu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37031070
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.132

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) is a promising secondary battery system with high energy density and environment-friendly characteristics, however, the severe "shuttle effect" and poor conductivity usually lead to short service life and low initial capacity. Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) with excellent conductivity and large quantity of cavities are promising host materials, whereas, the weak interaction between CNTs and polysulfides usually leads to serious shuttle effect in charge/discharge processes. Herein, thienothiophene-based covalent organic framework is uniformly wrapped on the outer surface of CNTs to form a nanocomposite TT-BOST@CNT. It is observed that the coexistence of the electron-rich S, O and the electron-deficient B atoms enables the effective adsorption of both Li⁺ and S_x^2- in lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). Studies reveal that the B, O and S atoms endow the nanocomposite with good catalysis ability, whereby, conversion of the insoluble long-chain polysulfides to the soluble short-chain polysulfides is accelerated. Consequently, the TT-BOST@CNT/S cathode displays outstanding electrochemical performance, with a high discharge specific capacity of 1545 mAh g^-1 at 0.2 C and a small attenuation rate of 0.035% per cycle in 1000 cycles at 1 C.

Keywords: Electrocatalyst; Heteroatom-doping; Lithium-sulfurbatteries; Polysulfideadsorption.