The interaction between lithium polysulfides and doped heteroatoms could prevent the loss of soluble polysulfides in the cathode and mitigate the shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, a facile synthesis of mesoporous graphene platelets (NSGs) with in situ nitrogen and sulfur doping by the pyrolysis of a self-assembled L-cysteine precursor on sodium chloride crystal surface for structuredirecting is presented. The mesoporous lamellar structure of the NSG possesses a uniform distribution of pyrrolic N, pyridinic N, and thiosulphate structured heteroatoms originating from in situ doping, which promotes the confinement of intermediate polysulfides. Combining the strong interactions with soluble polysulfide, flexible mesoporous architecture, and high conductivity of graphene, the prepared NSG material exhibited a high initial capacity of 1433 mA h g À1 at a 2C rate as well as a reversible capacity of 684 mA h g À1 after 200 cycles. This demonstrates that the in situ nitrogen and sulfur doped thin lamellar structure of graphene would be a promising cathode material for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries.
Lithium-sulfur batteries have attracted great attention because of their high energy density, environmental friendliness, natural abundance and intrinsically low cost of sulfur. However, their commercial applications are greatly hindered by rapid capacity decay due to poor conductivity of electrode, fast dissolution of the intermediate polysulfides into the electrolyte, and the volume expansion of sulfur. Herein, we report a novel composite MWCNTs@TiO2-S nanostructure by grafting TiO2 onto the surface of MWCNTs, followed by incorporating sulfur into the composite. The inner MWCNTs improved the mechanical strength and conductivity of the electrode and the outer TiO2 provided the adsorption sites to immobilize polysulfides due to bonding interaction between TiO2 and polysulfides. The MWCNTs@TiO2-S composite with a mass ratio of 50% (MWCNTs in MWCNTs@TiO2) exhibited the highest electrochemistry performance among all compositing ratios of MWCNTs/TiO2. The performance improvement might be attributed to the downward shift of the apparent Fermi level to a more positive potential and electron rich space region at the interface of MWCNTs-TiO2 that facilitates the reduction of lithium polysulfide at a higher potential. Such a novel hybrid structure can be applicable for electrode design in other energy storage applications.
Mesoporous lamellar carbon was produced by direct high temperature carbonization of bagasse, a novel process designed with affordable cost and ease of production for scale-up manufacturing of Li–S batteries.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.