Fe2O3-decorated hollow CNT as efficient cathode coatings for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract

The performance of lithium-sulfur batteries is hindered by the negative impact of polysulfide shuttling and slow sulfur redox kinetics. To achieve high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries, it is necessary to eliminate or reduce the dissolution and diffusion of polysulfides. Herein, this work reports the utilization of Fe2O3-decorated hollow carbon nano-tubes (Fe2O3@CNT) as efficient cathode coatings to trap polysulfides, which has led to accelerated reaction kinetics and improved catalytic activity for polysulfide conversion. These attributes enable Fe2O3@CNT cathode coating battery to deliver an initial discharge-specific capacity of 1273 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and only experience a capacity decay of 0.067% per cycle over 800 cycles at 1 C. These findings demonstrate that Fe2O3@CNT is a promising cathode coating material with the potential to significantly improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries by reducing polysulfide shuttling and enhancing reaction kinetics.