The Synergy of La2O3 Nanoparticles and Graphene for Advanced Li‐S Batteries

Abstract

AbstractAs a promising alternative for next‐generation energy storge devices, lithium‐sulfur batteries suffer from polysulfide shuttle and the inherent slow kinetics under long‐ term operating and high mass loading which mainly cause by the absence of available immobilizer and conversion mediators. Herein, La2O3 nanoparticles anchored on graphene composite is designed and demonstrates a high‐performance sulfur immobilizer and conversion promoter. Benefiting from the composite, the corresponding Li−S batteries display good cycling stability (capacity fading rate 0.051 % per cycle after 500 cycles), high initial specific capacity (1423.7 mA h g−1 at 0.2 A g−1), and excellent cycling performance at high sulfur loading (5.03 mg cm−2). The results of experiments and density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations revealed that the La2O3 nanoparticles is a desirable separator modification material that can effectively tuning the absorption and conversion interactions with polysulfides through S−La and Li−O chemical bonds.