Issue 47, 2018

Paragenesis BN/CNTs hybrid as a monoclinic sulfur host for high rate and ultra-long life lithium–sulfur battery

Abstract

For lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, it is critical to design advanced host materials with high conductivity and strong binding interactions with sulfur species to trap and convert the polysulfides efficiently. Here, we report a novel BN/CNTs hybrid with paragenesis structure, high surface area and O-doping via a one-step co-pyrolysis method. Such paragenesis structure can remarkably lower the contact resistance between non-conducting BN and conductive CNTs, and the O dopant in BN can narrow the bandgap of BN, both imparting the BN/CNTs hybrid a high conductivity of 1884 S m−1. The BN/CNTs hybrid hosted sulfur shows monoclinic phase instead of the generally reported orthorhombic phase, implying a strong interaction between sulfur and the BN/CNTs hybrid. Moreover, the high surface and the O doping enable BN/CNTs hybrid to adsorb polysulfides with a superior capacity due to the polarization of electrons away from the sulfur atoms towards BN/CNTs. Thus, the BN/CNTs–sulfur cathode can deliver high specific capacity (1374 and 1068 mA h g−1 at 0.2C and 1C, respectively), superior cycling stability (a constant coulombic efficiency of ∼99% and a decay rate of 0.045% per cycle along with 500 cycles at 1C) and excellent rate capability (840 mA h g−1 at 4C). Moreover, it exhibits good high-sulfur-loading areal capacity (up to 4.5 mA h cm−2) with stable cell performance.

Graphical abstract: Paragenesis BN/CNTs hybrid as a monoclinic sulfur host for high rate and ultra-long life lithium–sulfur battery

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Here 2018
Accepted
27 Here 2018
First published
01 Du 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 24194-24200

Paragenesis BN/CNTs hybrid as a monoclinic sulfur host for high rate and ultra-long life lithium–sulfur battery

B. He, W. Li, Y. Zhang, X. Yu, B. Zhang, F. Li and A. Lu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 24194 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA09564G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements