Ni2P/carbon nanotube nanocomposite as host material for high performance lithium-sulfur battery cathode

Abstract

• A simple hydrothermal method is used to compound the catalytic Ni 2 P and carbon nanotubes with good conductivity as the host material for the cathode material of the lithium-sulfur battery. • Ni 2 P can not only catalyze the solid-liquid conversion process from S 8 to Li 2 S x , but also catalyze the liquid–solid conversion from Li 2 S x to Li 2 S 2 /Li 2 S, which can inhibit the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfide during charging and discharging and improve the kinetics of the oxidation reaction. • The composite material effectively improves the electrochemical performance of the material, showing good rate performance and capacity. Compared with metal oxide-based lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered to be one of the most promising next-generation energy storage systems because of their high specific capacity and energy density. However, due to the low conductivity of the electrode material, the shuttle effect, and the drastic volume change, the battery capacity decays quickly and the cycle life is poor. These problems hinder the commercialization of Li-S batteries. In this paper, a simple hydrothermal method is used to compound the catalytic Ni 2 P and carbon nanotubes with good conductivity as the host material for the cathode material of the lithium-sulfur battery. Ni 2 P can catalyze the conversion of multisulfide lithium, which can inhibit the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfide during charging and discharging and improve the kinetics of the oxidation reaction.