Issue 28, 2020

TiO2-decorated porous carbon nanofiber interlayer for Li–S batteries

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are the most promising energy storage systems owing to their high energy density. However, shuttling of polysulfides detracts the electrochemical performance of Li–S batteries and thus prevents the commercialization of Li–S batteries. Here, TiO2@porous carbon nanofibers (TiO2@PCNFs) are fabricated via combining electrospinning and electrospraying techniques and the resultant TiO2@PCNFs are evaluated for use as an interlayer in Li–S batteries. TiO2 nanoparticles on PCNFs are observed from SEM and TEM images. A high initial discharge capacity of 1510 mA h g−1 is achieved owing to the novel approach of electrospinning the carbon precursor and electrospraying TiO2 nanoparticles simultaneously. In this approach TiO2 nanoparticles capture polysulfides with strong interaction and the PCNFs with high conductivity recycle and re-use the adsorbed polysulfides, thus leading to high reversible capacity and stable cycling performance. A high reversible capacity of 967 mA h g−1 is reached after 200 cycles at 0.2C. The cell with the TiO2@PCNF interlayer also delivers a reversible capacity of around 1100 mA h g−1 at 1C, while the cell without the interlayer exhibits a lower capacity of 400 mA h g−1. Therefore, this work presents a novel approach for designing interlayer materials with exceptional electrochemical performance for high performance Li–S batteries.

Graphical abstract: TiO2-decorated porous carbon nanofiber interlayer for Li–S batteries

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Feb 2020
Accepted
26 Mar 2020
First published
28 Apr 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 16570-16575

TiO2-decorated porous carbon nanofiber interlayer for Li–S batteries

M. Yanilmaz, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 16570 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01791D

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