Nano-Sized Graphene Cages Realize Highly Loaded “Solid-Solid” Process in Cathode Materials of Lithium Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Abstract The effects of polysulfide shuttle and volume expansion in lithium sulfur batteries limit their practical applications. In this work, a two-dimensional fabric with graphene cage interweaving was designed by the chemical vapor deposition method to resolve these issues. It has a large number of micropores, mesopores, and macropores. Sulfur was deposited in these pores by melting method to form sulfur/graphene complex. Polysulfides were confined within these pores, making them less likely to diffuse and shuttle. Graphene walls have strong flexibility and can alleviate the volume expansion effect during charge and discharge process. Sulfur/graphene complex as active materials were directly coated on aluminum foil by graphene oxide to build lithium-sulfur battery, where graphene oxide served not only as an adhesive but also as a conductive agent to improve the electrochemical performances of batteries. The lithium-sulfur battery had an initial capacity of 1400 mAh g-1 and high capacity retention (500 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles at 0.2 C rate). These results suggest that the reasonable design of material morphology for sulfur loading will effectively improve the performance of lithium sulfur batteries.