Interconnected carbon nanotube/graphene nanosphere scaffolds as free-standing paper electrode for high-rate and ultra-stable lithium–sulfur batteries

Synthesis of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Aqueous Suspension with Surfactant Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate for Lithium/Sulfur Rechargeable Batteries

“…This porous MWNT network could serve as not only a 3D interlinked current collector for long range electron transfer but also as a macroporous robust matrix to allow deep penetration of the electrolyte and to prevent segregation of sulfur particles. 14 Figure 3c and 3d present the SEM images of S/MWNT mixture at different magnification. One can see that the S/MWNT mixture is highly agglomerated.…”

“…The main problems include: low utilization of sulfur because of its poor electrical conductivity and rapid capacity loss on repeated cycling because of dissolution of polysulfides into the electrolytes. 3 Various methods have been explored to address the above mentioned issue, including addition of various types of conductive carbon materials [4][5][6][7][8][9] and conductive polymers. [10][11][12][13] Notably, the dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) with sulfur has been proven to be an effective and facile method to reinforce the electric conductivity of the cathode and prevent dissolution of lithium polysulfides into the electrolytes.…”

Nucleophilic substitution between polysulfides and binders unexpectedly stabilizing lithium sulfur battery

“…[5] This shuttle effect, together with low conductivity, leads to poor sulfur utilization and fast-capacity fade, which have hindered widespread use of rechargeable Li-S batteries. [6][7] Efforts to trap the shuttling polysulfides have mainly focused on meso/nano-carbon matrix as summarized by Liu et al, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] formation of sulfur composites initiated by Wang et al [21][22][23] and metal oxide/sulfide hosts reviewed by Mai et al [24] Since divinyloxyhydroxyolysulphides was first developed by T.A. Skotheim et al as an alternative binder solution for Li-S batteries, [25] polymers including gelatin, [26][27][28] polyethylene oxide, [29] polyacrylic acid, [30] carboxyl methyl cellulose, [31] polyvinylpyrrolidone [32] , gum arabic binder, [33] carbonyl-β-cyclodextrin [23] and polyamidoamine dendrimer [34] were identified as promising binders to address the issue.…”

Dual‐Confined Flexible Sulfur Cathodes Encapsulated in Nitrogen‐Doped Double‐Shelled Hollow Carbon Spheres and Wrapped with Graphene for Li–S Batteries

“…[ 7,8 ] These problems not only lead to poor cycling stability, inferior rate capability, and low Coulombic efficiency, but also cause the deposition of insulating Li 2 S/Li 2 S 2 on both electrodes, resulting in low sulfur utilization and even triggering a series of safety problems. [9][10][11] To address these issues, signifi cant efforts have been dedicated to fabricate novel nanostructured carbon-sulfur composite electrodes, such as 3D hyperbranched hollow carbon nanorod/sulfur, [ 12 ] hollow carbon sphere/sulfur, [ 10,13 ] hollow carbon nanofi ber or nanotube/sulfur, [ 14,15 ] ordered mesomicroporous core-shell carbon/sulfur, [ 16 ] unstacked double-layer templated graphene/sulfur, [ 17 ] hollow graphene sphere/sulfur, [ 18 ] interconnected carbon nanotube/graphene nanosphere/sulfur, [ 19 ] and tube-in-tube carbon/ sulfur [ 20 ] nanocomposites. These porous carbon matrices are commonly believed to play dual roles in sulfur-carbon composites: suppress the polysulfi de diffusion and build conductive framework facilitating electron/ion transport.…”