Cr2O3 Nanoparticle Decorated Carbon Nanofibers Derived from Solid Leather Wastes for High Performance Lithium-Sulfur Battery Separator Coating

Abstract

The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery has been considered as a promising energy storage system due to its high energy density (2600 Wh kg−1) and low cost. However, Li-S battery still exhibits significant challenge for commercial application due to the “shuttle effect”. Here, we prepare a composite of Cr2O3-decorated carbon nanofibers (Cr-CNFs) inherited from natural collagen fibers of solid leather wastes (SLWs) and design a multifunctional separator coating for high-performance Li-S batteries. The physical blocking effect of the fibrous morphology of Cr-CNFs and the chemical adsorption by nano Cr2O3 phase in Cr-CNFs could synergistically trap polysulfides to suppress the shuttle effect in Li-S batteries. Moreover, the Cr-CNFs can form conductive network in the as-prepared separator coating, which facilitates the efficient utilization of active materials, due to its specific fibrous structure. Our results demonstrate a superior capacity retention (∼810 mAh g−1 after 260 cycles at 0.2 C, < 0.1% decay rate per cycle), long cycle life, and high coulombic efficiency (>95%) for the Li-S batteries built with our Cr-CNFs separator coating. The high performance of Li-S battery with Cr-CNFs separator coating as well as the efficient reutilization of SLWs make the Cr-CNFs a promising material for Li-S batteries.