A Polysulfide-Immobilizing Polymer Retards the Shuttling of Polysulfide Intermediates in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

作者：Tu, Shuibin; Chen, Xiang; Zhao, Xinxin; Cheng, Mingren; Xiong, Peixun; He, Yongwu; Zhang, Qiang^*; Xu, Yunhua^*

来源：Advanced Materials, 2018, 30(45): 1804581.

DOI：10.1002/adma.201804581

• Gum Arabic
• high sulfur loading
• lithium-sulfur batteries
• polysulfide-immobilizing polymers
• shuttle effect

Lithium-sulfur batteries are regarded as one of the most promising candidates for next-generation rechargeable batteries. However, the practical application of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries is seriously impeded by the notorious shuttling of soluble polysulfide intermediates, inducing a low utilization of active materials, severe self-discharge, and thus a poor cycling life, which is particularly severe in high-sulfur-loading cathodes. Herein, a polysulfide-immobilizing polymer is reported to address the shuttling issues. A natural polymer of Gum Arabic (GA) with precise oxygen-containing functional groups that can induce a strong binding interaction toward lithium polysulfides is deposited onto a conductive support of a carbon nanofiber (CNF) film as a polysulfide shielding interlayer. The as-obtained CNF-GA composite interlayer can achieve an outstanding performance of a high specific capacity of 880 mA h g(-1) and a maintained specific capacity of 827 mA h g(-1) after 250 cycles under a sulfur loading of 1.1 mg cm(-2). More importantly, high reversible areal capacities of 4.77 and 10.8 mA h cm(-2) can be obtained at high sulfur loadings of 6 and even 12 mg cm(-2), respectively. The results offer a facile and promising approach to develop viable lithium-sulfur batteries with high sulfur loading and high reversible capacities.

• 出版日期2018-11
• 单位清华大学; 天津大学