Sulfur-impregnated disordered SnO2/carbon aerogel core–shell microspheres cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract

It is extremely critical to prevent the loss of sulfur active material and shuttle reaction of polysulfide through into electrolyte in high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. In this paper, we reported sulfur-impregnated SnO2/carbon aerogel core–shell microspheres as a polysulfide adsorbent for lithium-sulfur battery. The core of carbon aerogel microspheres is able to accommodate increasing volume and the shell of SnO2 works as high-efficiency polysulfide trap for the flexible structure of SnO2/carbon aerogel core–shell microspheres at full capacity. The obtained core–shell cathodes demonstrate significantly improved electrochemical performance (949 mAh g−1 at 0.1C). The capacities are remain 785 mAh g−1 over 80 cycles and high capacity retention of 76.9%. This positive result is owing to unique structure of core–shell microspheres with fast ion/electron transfer path and good structural stability.