WO3 Nanowire/Carbon Nanotube Interlayer as a Chemical Adsorption Mediator for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

We developed a new nanowire for enhancing the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries. In this study, we synthesized WO3 nanowires (WNWs) via a simple hydrothermal method. WNWs and one-dimensional materials are easily mixed with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form interlayers. The WNW interacts with lithium polysulfides through a thiosulfate mediator, retaining the lithium polysulfide near the cathode to increase the reaction kinetics. The lithium-sulfur cell achieves a very high initial discharge capacity of 1558 and 656 mAh g−1 at 0.1 and 3 C, respectively. Moreover, a cell with a high sulfur mass loading of 4.2 mg cm−2 still delivers a high capacity of 1136 mAh g−1 at a current density of 0.2 C and it showed a capacity of 939 mAh g−1 even after 100 cycles. The WNW/CNT interlayer maintains structural stability even after electrochemical testing. This excellent performance and structural stability are due to the chemical adsorption and catalytic effects of the thiosulfate mediator on WNW.

Architecting Hierarchical WO3 Agglomerates Assembled With Straight and Parallel Aligned Nanoribbons Enabling High Capacity and Robust Stability of Lithium Storage

“…However, noticeable capacity degradation was observed (1,379 mAh g −1 for initial discharge and 30.9% capacity retention on 50th cycle). Beyond these, vacancy engineering (Tu et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019) or developing hybridization of WO 3 with conductive carbon-based materials (Yu et al, 2013;Di et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2021) have also been used to lower the bandgap and diffusion barriers, but the capacity retention is still limited during prolonged cycling. In this respect, despite these attempts, it remains an enormous challenge to improve the specific capacity and cyclic stability concurrently to satisfy future large-scale commercial applications (Xiao Z. et al, 2021;Du et al, 2021).…”

In Honor of John Bannister Goodenough, an Outstanding Visionary

“…(4) Lithium-sulfur batteries can provide a higher energy density than classical Li-ion batteries at a lower cost, and they are environmentally friendly. Here, Sang-Kyu Lee, Hun Kim, Sangin Bang, Seung-Taek Myung and Yang-Kook Sun [10] show how the addition of WO 3 nanowires mixed with carbon nanotubes at the separator/cathode interface may improve the performance of such a device.…”

Hierarchical Porous and Three-Dimensional MXene/SiO2 Hybrid Aerogel through a Sol-Gel Approach for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…The continuous progress in research and development of functional separators has significantly improved the cycling performance of LSBs [ 16 , 17 ]. The functional separator is easy to prepare, and it can be used as an effective barrier to inhibit the shuttle effect of polar polysulfides across separators, and as a reservoir for different sulfur species [ 18 , 19 ].…”