Mn and N-doped RGO as a sulfur hosting accelerate electron transfer and redox reactions for Li–S batteries

Abstract

The notorious polysulfides shuttling and slow redox reaction kinetics largely limit the Li–S battery commercial application as an effective energy storage system. In this report, Mn/N catalysts were co-doped on a high specific surface area reduced graphene oxide (RGO) scaffold by a simple formamide media-assisted method to develop the sulfur holding material for Li–S battery. The N-doped RGO with conductive layer structure not only facilitates the ion and electron transfer, but also provides superb reservoir space for sulfur volume expansion and intermediate polysulfides. Moreover, the introduction of Mn metal catalysts both paly the roles of chemical trappers and electrocatalysts to chemically anchor the polysulfides and accelerate the redox kinetics. It is a promising holding material to improve the reutilization of the polysulfides and suppression of the shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur batteries. As a result, the high initial discharge capacity for the Mn-NG modified Li–S battery is about 1124.7 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C, which can still reach to 914.3 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles, with a retention rate up to 81%. We believe that our method offers a significant approach to prepare multi-functional sulfur hosts for high performance Li–S batteries.