Abstract
Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have a much higher energy density than Li ion batteries and thus are considered as next generation batteries for electric vehicle applications. However, the problem of rapid capacity fading due to the shuttling of soluble polysulfides between electrodes remains the main obstacle for practical applications. Here, a thin and selective interlayer structure has been designed and produced to decrease the charge transfer resistance and mitigate the shuttling problem, simply by coating the surface of cathode with a thin film of functionalized boron nitride nanosheets/graphene. Due to this thin and ultralight interlayer, the specific capacity and cycling stability of the Li–S batteries with a cathode of sulfur‐containing porous carbon nanotubes (≈60 wt% sulfur content) have been improved significantly with a life of over 1000 cycles, an initial specific capacity of 1100 mA h g−1 at 3 C, and a cycle decay as low as 0.0037% per cycle. This new interlayer provides a promising approach to significantly enhance the performance of Li–S batteries.
Highlights
This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record
Among the current battery systems, lithium–sulphur (Li–S) batteries are attractive candidates for serving as generation batteries of high energy density. It has been developed since 1940s due to its high energy density performance (2600 W h kg-1), and a higher specific capacity (1675 mA h g-1) based on the electrochemical reaction of 16Li + S8 → 8Li2S[2]
Discharge curves of the battery with the functionalized boron nitride nanosheets (FBN)/G interlayer obtained at a higher current (3 C) still clearly contain the two plateaus at 250 and 500 cycles, indicating that the electrochemical reactions at higher charge/discharge rates follow the processes similar to those occurring at lower rates (e.g. 1 C) (Figure 2b)
Summary
This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. We have designed and produced a thin and selective interlayer structure to decrease the charge transfer resistance and mitigate the shuttling problem, by coating the surface of cathode with a thin film of functionalized boron nitride nanosheets (FBN)/graphene.
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