Carbon onion–sulfur hybrid cathodes for lithium–sulfur batteries

Abstract

In this study, we explore carbon onions (diameter below 10 nm), for the first time, as a substrate material for lithium sulfur cathodes. We introduce several scalable synthesis routes to fabricate carbon onion–sulfur hybrids by adopting in situ and melt diffusion strategies with sulfur fractions up to 68 mass%. The conducting skeleton of agglomerated carbon onions proved to be responsible for keeping active sulfur always in close vicinity to the conducting matrix. Therefore, the hybrids are found to be efficient cathodes for Li–S batteries, yielding 97–98% Coulombic efficiency over 150 cycles with a slow fading of the specific capacity (ca. 660 mA h g⁻¹ after 150 cycles) in long term cycle test and rate capability experiments.