Flexible copper-stabilized sulfur–carbon nanofibers with excellent electrochemical performance for Li–S batteries

Abstract

By rational design, we fabricated a flexible and free-standing copper-immobilized sulfur–porous carbon nanofiber (denoted as S@PCNFs-Cu) electrode by simply impregnating sulfur into electrospun derived Cu embedded porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs-Cu). The PCNF film with a 3D interconnected structure is used as a conducting matrix to encapsulate sulfur. In addition, the introduction of Cu leads to the formation of a chemical bond between Cu and S, preventing the dissolution of polysulfide during cycling. The micropores and mesopores of PCNF hosts provide free space to accommodate the volume change of S and polysulfide. When used as a cathode material for Li–S batteries, the S@PCNFs-Cu (S content: 52 wt%) exhibits much better electrochemical performance compared to the Cu-free S@PCNF electrode. The S@PCNFs-Cu displays high reversible capacity (680 mA h g⁻¹ after 100 cycles at 50 mA g⁻¹), excellent rate capability (415 mA h g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹) and super Coulombic efficiency of 100%. This strategy of stabilizing S with a small amount of copper nanoparticles can be a very promising method to prepare free-standing cathode material for high-performance Li–S batteries.