Rational design of 3DOM porous TiO2 matrix decorated with Co nanoparticles as novel sulfur hosts for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract

In this work, we devise a hard-templating strategy to realize the controllable synthesis of three-dimensional ordered porous TiO2 matrix decorated with Co nanoparticles as sulfur hosts for Li/S batteries. Specifically, TiO2 matrix with unique 3D ordered porous structure not only can facilitate rapid lithium ion and electron transport, but also provide high affinity for lithium polysulfides. Besides, the Co nanoparticles embedded in TiO2 matrix possesses inherent metallic conductivity and enables boosted kinetics of polysulfide transformation to mitigate the shuttle effect. As expected, the S/3DOM Co-TiO2 perform exceptionally first discharge capacity of 929.6 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C, and improved rate discharge capacity of 517.5 mAh g−1 at 3 C, as well as an enhanced cycling performance.