Ultrafast Strategy to Fabricate Sulfur Cathodes for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Kun Liu; Huimin Yuan; Xinyang Wang; Peiyuan Ye; Binda Lu; Junjie Zhang; Wang Lu; Feng Jiang; Shuai Gu; Jingjing Chen; Chunliu Yan; Yingzhi Li; Zhenghe Xu; Zhouguang Lu

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c04972

Ultrafast Strategy to Fabricate Sulfur Cathodes for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Jul 5;15(26):31478-31490. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c04972. Epub 2023 Jun 25.

Authors

Kun Liu^{1

2}, Huimin Yuan^{1

2}, Xinyang Wang^{1

2}, Peiyuan Ye^{1

2}, Binda Lu^{1

2}, Junjie Zhang^{1

2}, Wang Lu^{1

2}, Feng Jiang^{1

2

3}, Shuai Gu^{1

2}, Jingjing Chen^{1

2}, Chunliu Yan^{1

2}, Yingzhi Li^{1

2}, Zhenghe Xu^{1

2

3}, Zhouguang Lu¹

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Interfacial Science and Engineering of Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Key University Laboratory of Highly Efficient Utilization of Solar Energy and Sustainable Development of Guangdong, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Advanced Materials Innovation Center, Jiaxing Research Institute of Southern University of Science and Technology, Jiaxing 314031, China.

PMID: 37357370
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c04972

Abstract

Based on the different dielectric properties of materials and the selective heating property of microwaves, the ultrafast (30 s) preparation of S-NiS₂@SP@Bitu as a cathode material for lithium-sulfur batteries was achieved using bitumen, sulfur, Super P, and nickel naphthenate as raw materials for the first time, under microwave treatment. NiS₂@SP@Bitu forms Li-N, Li-O, Li-S, and Ni-S bonds with polysulfide, which contributes to promoting the adsorption of polysulfide, reducing the precipitation and decomposition energy barrier of Li₂S, and accelerating the catalytic conversion of polysulfide, as result of inhibiting the "shuttle effect" and improving the electrochemical performance. S-NiS₂@SP@Bitu as the sulfur cathode material demonstrates outstanding rate performance (518.6 mAh g^-1 at 4C), and stable cycling performance. The lithium-sulfur battery with a sulfur loading of 4.8 mg cm^-2 shows an areal capacity of 4.6 mAh cm^-2. Based on the advantages of microwave selective and rapid heating, this method creatively realized that the sulfur carrier material was prepared and sulfur was fixed in it at the same time. Therefore, this method would have implications for the preparation of sulfur cathode materials.

Keywords: Ni2S; bitumen; cathode; lithium−sulfur batteries; microwave treatment.