Carbon Nanoarrays Research Articles

MOF-derived high-density carbon nanotubes “tentacle” with boosting electrocatalytic activity for detecting ascorbic acid

Accurate detection of ascorbic acid (AA) plays a significant role in food and human physiological processes. Herein, a three-dimensional flexible leaf-like nitrogen-doped hierarchical carbon nanoarrays with high-density carbon nanotube “tentacle” architecture (NC/CNT-Co), which possesses high specific surface area, plenty of active defect sites, and various pore size distributions, was synthesized by the pyrolysis of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF(Co)), while g-C3N4 acted as carbon source and heteroatom doping agent. Benefiting from its unique structure and surface properties, a selective and highly sensitive AA sensor was developed using this material. Compared to powder materials, NC/CNT-Co modified CF (CF@NC/CNT-Co) which don't be extra decorated, exhibits lower detection limit (1 μM), a wider linear range (20–1400 μM), and better stability, showing higher performance in electrocatalysis and detection of AA. Furthermore, CF@NC/CNT-Co also demonstrates high resistance to interference and fouling in AA detection. Particularly, the prepared CF@NC/CNT-Co electrode could determine AA in beverage samples with a recovery rate of 96.3–103.5 %. Therefore, the three-dimensional NC/CNT-Co hierarchical structure can be provided as an original electrode nanomaterial suitable for the selective and sensitive detection of AA, with a wide range of practical applications from food analysis to the pharmaceutical industry.

Inducing Circularly Polarized Luminescence by Confined Synthesis of Ultrasmall Chiral Carbon Nanodot Arrays in Pyrene-Based MOF Thin Film.

Combining the features of the host-guest system and chirality is an efficient strategy to achieve circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Herein, well-defined chiral carbon nanodot (chirCND) arrays were confined-synthesized by low-temperature calcination of a chiral amino acid loaded metal-organic framework (MOF) to induce high CPL. An achiral porous pyrene-based MOF NU-1000 thin film as the host template was prepared by a liquid-phase epitaxial layer-by-layer fashion, and chiral amino acids as the carbon sources could be confined in the porous MOF and carbonized to homogeneous and ultrasmall chirCND arrays, resulting in a chirCNDs@NU-1000 thin film (l-CNDsx@NU-1000; x = l-cysteine (cys), l-serine, l-histidine, l-glutamic acid, and l-pyroglutamic acid). The results show the pristine chirCNDs by directly carbonizing chiral amino acids hardly endow them with a CPL property. By contrast, benefiting from the arrayed confinement and coordination interaction between chirCNDs and NU-1000, the chirality transfer on the excited state of chirCNDs@NU-1000 is enabled, leading to strong CPL performance (a high luminescence dissymmetry factor glum of l-CNDscys@NU-1000 thin film reached 1.74 × 10-2). This study of chirCNDs encapsulated in fluorescent MOF thin films provides a strategy for developing uniform chiral carbon nanoarrays and offers chiral host-guest thin-film materials for optical applications.

Multifunctional MOF-Derived Au, Co-Doped Porous Carbon Electrode for a Wearable Sweat Energy Harvesting-Storage Hybrid System.

As an efficient alternative for harnessing the energy from human's biofluid, a wearable energy harvesting-storage hybrid supercapacitor-biofuel cell (SC-BFC) microfluidic system is established with one multifunctional electrode. The electrode integrates metal-organic framework (MOF) derived carbon nanoarrays with embedded Au, Co nanoparticles on a flexible substrate, and is used for the symmetric supercapacitor as well as the enzyme nanocarriers of the biofuel cell. The electrochemical performance of the proposed electrode is evaluated, and the corresponding working mechanism is studied in depth according to the cyclic voltammetry and density functional theory calculation. The multiplexed microfluidic system is designed to pump and store natural sweat to maintain the continuous biofuel supply in the hybrid SC-BFC system. The biofuel cell module harvests electricity from lactate in sweat, and the symmetric supercapacitor module accommodates the bioelectricity for subsequent utilization. A numerical model is developed to validate the normal operation in poor and rich sweat under variable situations for the microfluidic system. One single SC-BFC unit can be self-charged to ≈0.8V with superior mechanical durability in on-body testing, as well as energy and power values of 7.2 mJ and 80.3 µW, respectively. It illustrates the promising scenery of energy harvesting-storage hybrid microfluidic system.

Multifunctional Ni-doped CoSe2 nanoparticles decorated bilayer carbon structures for polysulfide conversion and dendrite-free lithium toward high-performance Li-S full cell

The commercial application of lithium-sulfur batteries is severely hampered by polysulfide shuttle effects, sluggish redox kinetics, and uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth. Herein, a unique Ni-doped CoSe2 nanoparticle decorated bilayer carbon (Ni-CoSe2/BC) structure is synthesized for both the sulfur cathode and lithium anode, which introduces bi-functionalities including Ⅰ) the internal carbon conductive network skeleton of carbon nanotubes is capable of physically confining, storing, and alleviating volume expansion of sulfur; and Ⅱ) Ni-CoSe2 nanoparticles decorated on the external carbon nanoarrays contribute to efficient chemical anchoring and accelerated polysulfide conversion for the cathode, and serve as lithiophilic sites to induce homogeneous lithium deposition for the anode. As a result, Ni-CoSe2/BC effectively inhibits the shuttle effect and induces dendrite-free lithium deposition. The Ni-CoSe2/BC-S delivers a high discharge specific capacity of 806 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles at 1 C, with a low capacity decay rate of 0.07% per cycle. Moreover, the Ni-CoSe2/BC-Li exhibits an impressively long cycle life of 2000 h at 10 mA cm−2/10 mAh cm−2. Notably, the lithium-sulfur full cell assembled with Ni-CoSe2/BC as universal hosts for both anode and cathode possesses an average discharge capacity of 6.07 mAh cm−2 in 50 cycles (Sulfur loading=12.8 mg cm−2, Electrolyte/Sulfur=7.8 μL mg−1, and Negative/Positive=1.56). This work provides novel structural design and mechanism insights for the practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Ni single‐atom arrays as self‐supported electrocatalysts for CO2RR

AbstractDeveloping highly active, selective, and stable electrocatalysts for the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is essential to relieve the greenhouse effect and the energy crisis. Traditional catalytic electrodes require ionomer binders, which inevitably impose undesired high CO2 transport resistance and block the active sites. Herein, Ni single atoms anchored on nitrogen‐doped carbon nanoarrays (denoted as Ni‐SAC‐NA) were developed as the electrode without additional ionomers for efficient CO2RR. The unique nanoarray structure provided a higher specific surface area, more exposed active sites, and enhanced electron/mass transport due to its short diffusion pathway and ionomer‐free nature. As a result, the Ni‐SAC‐NA electrode exhibited enhanced activity of CO2RR and selectivity towards CO with Faradaic efficiency of 96.7%, turnover frequency of 27,504 h−1, and cathodic energy efficiencies of 54.9% at −0.88 V (vs. RHE). Our findings provide a rational design strategy for CO2RR electrocatalysts by constructing ionomer‐free electrodes.

Development and performance analysis of a 316 stainless steel autoclave for facile fabrication of carbon nanoarchitectures derived from natural potato and starch

In this study, we describe a facile hydrothermal method for synthesis of carbon nano-arrays, using materials available locally, resulting in an affordable autoclave system. Stainless steel type 1.4401 (with grade 316) possesses high temperature mechanical properties and anticorrosion characteristics and is therefore appropriate for autoclave device construction. For analysis, a systematic study of the three Von Misses stress models of an autoclave system was performed using Abaqus software. Also, the effect of the component's thickness on the stress concentration was examined. This was done to find the most optimal mode of the autoclave's resistance to stress caused by temperature and pressure. So, for further evaluation of this reactor in the laboratory, a series of experiments was designed. It is interesting to find that natural potato and chemical starch as low-cost precursors play a vital role in constructing carbon-based nanomaterials. In this study, by utilizing natural extracts and chemical precursors, the potential of designed autoclave systems has been explored in the fabrication of carbon materials with diverse shapes of nanorods and nanospheres. The structural, chemical compositional and morphological changes of the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. As the precursor was changed, a significant difference was observed in the shape and morphologies of the black nano-products. Such results suggest competition between designed and commercial autoclaves in the fabrication of nanomaterials. More importantly, these structure-controlled carbon nanomaterials with unique properties can be explored in many practical applications.

Single-Atom Metallophilic Sites for Liquid NaK Alloy Confinement toward Stable Alkali-Metal Anodes.

Room temperature liquid NaK alloy is a promising candidate for high performance metal batteries, due to its dendrite-free property and high energy density. However, its practical application is hindered by the high surface tension of liquid NaK, which causes difficulties in maintaining a stable contact with a current collector. Here, the authors demonstrate the extraordinary stable confinement of NaK alloy at room temperature by constructing a super-wetting substrate, which is based on highly dispersed cobalt-single-atom carbon nanoarrays. The developed liquid anode electrode prevented successfully the leakage of NaK alloy even in harsh stress (>5MPa) or sharp shock conditions. The symmetric cells achieved ultra-long reversible plating/stripping cycling life in both Na-ion (>1010hrs) and K-ion electrolytes (>4000hrs) at 10mA cm-2 /10mAh cm-2 . Upon fitting with Na3 V2 (PO4 )3 , the NaK assembled full battery provided high energy density (332.6kWh kg-1 ) and power density (11.05kW kg-1 ) with excellent stability after >21600cycles, which is the best value reported so far. The prepared pouch cell was able to drive a four-axis aircraft, demonstrating a great prospect in practical application. This work offers a new approach in the preparation of advanced dendrite-free liquid metal anodes with promising applications in electrochemical energy storage.

Nano-sphere RuO2 embedded in MOF-derived carbon arrays as a dual-matrix anode for cost-effective electrochemical wastewater treatment

The electrodes' activity, surface area and cost hinder the deployment of electrochemical wastewater treatment. Using an economical microfiber-based carbon felt (CF) substrate, we design RuO2 nanospheres confined by CoxO cooperated carbon nanoarrays (RuO2-CoxO@TCF) to augment noble metal utilization and thus reduce the catalyst cost. RuO2-CoxO@TCF anode with vertical diffusion channels exhibits rapid generation ability of oxidizing species particularity in the presence of Cl− ions, which play a crucial role in azo bond cleavage and benzene ring chlorination of methyl orange. As a result, the catalyst shows 99.5 % color removal and ∼ 70 % mineralization efficiency at a concentration of 60 ppm. In synthetic dyeing wastewater, RuO2-CoxO@TCF delivers a stable total organic carbon (TOC) removal throughout ten cycling tests. Moreover, the electricity consumption of RuO2-CoxO@TCF is far below the reference anode, showing great promise for dye degradation and remediation of industrial wastewater.

Mesoporous hierarchical NiCoSe2-NiO composite self-supported on carbon nanoarrays as synergistic electrocatalyst for flexible lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have enormous application potential in the flexible energy storage field due to their large theoretical specific capacities and high energy densities. However, lithium-sulfur batteries face a notorious shuttle effect problem. To address this challenge, this work reports a three-dimensional (3D) structure of binary transition metal selenides (B-TMSe) hierarchical composites (CC/NiCoSe2-NiO) on carbon cloth as a self-supporting sulfur host for flexible LSBs. According to the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, NiCoSe2can exert a synergetic effect of high affinity with Lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and electrocatalytic activity to lower the adsorption energy barrier and accelerate the sluggish reaction kinetics of polysulfides. Consequently, the CC/NiCoSe2-NiO-based electrodes realize a large specific capacity of approximately 1363 mAh/g at a current density of 0.1C, excellent rate performance (454.66 mAh/g at 5C) and a reversible specific capacity of 978.9 mAh/g at 1C, along with impressive cycling stability with an attenuation rate of 0.038% per cycle for 1000 cycles. They also achieve a large reversible cycle capacity of 919.43 mAh/g at 0.2C even at a high sulfur loading (3.5 mg/cm2). With a lean electrolyte (E/S ratio 10 µL/mg) and a high sulfur loading of 2.65 mg/cm2, a large capacity of 934.1 mAh/g is retained after 150 cycles at 0.5C. The assembled pouch cells from S@CC/NiCoSe2-NiO electrodes show a high initial discharge capacity of 1039.5 mAh/g at 1C at a sulfur loading of 2.65 mg/cm2 and maintain strong stability under high twisting and buckling.

All-in-one asymmetric micro-supercapacitor with Negative Poisson's ratio structure based on versatile electrospun nanofibers

It is very necessary to design electrodes with satisfactory electrochemical performance and robust mechanical properties for flexible energy storage devices. Herein, a self-supporting electrode with Negative Poisson's Ratio (NPR) structure was fabricated by combining electrospinning and laser direct writing technology, which overcame the limitation that the traditional carbon-based materials cannot be stretched and avoided the integration problem of rigid electrodes and soft substrates in the conventional stretchable devices. Furthermore, a quasi-solid-state asymmetric micro-supercapacitor with NPR structure was assembled by an as-spun separator coated with gel electrolyte and two composite electrodes composed of carbon nanofibers and nanoarrays ([email protected]2O3 nanorods and [email protected]2 nanosheets). The apparatus not only reached an extended voltage window of 2 V, but also achieved an area energy density of 26 μWh·cm−2 at a power density of 0.55 mW·cm−2, which was superior to other wearable micro-supercapacitors.

Facile fabrication of oxygen and nitrogen co-doped 3D-carbon nanoarrays for high performance environmentally friendly wireless charging integration supercapacitor

For the fabrication of sustainable energy devices, to overcome the influence of binders and additives on the energy storage capacity of materials, and to promote portable electronic development, polypyrrole nanoarrays (PPy NAs) were prepared using a simple electrochemical deposition method. Further, oxygen and nitrogen co-doped 3D carbon nanoarrays (D-CNAs) were prepared using a carbonization method, which increased the conductivity of the materials and improved the energy storage capacity of the electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). Moreover, the charge transfer resistance was reduced by the synergistic effect of oxygen and nitrogen co-doping and the exposure of active sites in the 3D nanostructures, which gives D-CNAs a pseudo-capacitance. Using non-polluting and resource-rich sodium chloride as the electrolyte, the D-CNAs electrode exhibited a specific capacitance of up to 480 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 with excellent rate capability, and 77.1% of its capacitance could be retained at 10 A g−1, respectively. The D-CNAs//D-CNAs supercapacitor assembled exhibited excellent cycle stability. After 10,000 cycles at a current density of 10 A g−1, the specific capacitance retention was 90%. Finally, a wireless charging integration supercapacitor was fabricated using screen printing technology and a single-chip microcomputer.

Regulating Li+ migration and Li2S deposition by metal-organic framework-derived Co4S3-embedded carbon nanoarrays for durable lithium-sulfur batteries

The shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides and the uncontrollable deposition of lithium sulfides (Li2S) severely hinder the realization of high-performance lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Herein, we fabricated a carbon cloth (CC)-based self-supported interlayer (denoted as Co4S3/C@CC), which is covered with Co4S3-embedded porous carbon nanoarrays through a facile two-step method with cobalt-based metal-organic framework (Co-MOF) nanosheets as the template. The interconnected carbon network and the polar Co4S3 nanoparticles in the Co4S3/C@CC interlayer not only effectively suppress the polysulfide shuttle, but also significantly facilitate the lithium ion (Li+) conduction with a considerable Li+ transference number of 0.86. Besides, the rich interfaces between the polar Co4S3 nanoparticles and the conductive carbon substrate serve as reaction sites to accelerate the polysulfide conversion and guide the flower-like growth of Li2S, which ultimately mitigates the interlayer surface passivation and improves the sulfur utilization. Therefore, the Li-S batteries with the Co4S3/C@CC interlayer deliver an excellent rate capacity (368.7 mA h g−1 at 10 C), a stable cycling performance (a low fading rate of 0.045% per cycle over 1400 cycles at 2.0 C), and a high initial areal capacity (4.83 mA h cm−2 at 0.2 C under a sulfur loading of 4.6 mg cm−2). This work provides a perspective on the self-supported catalytic interlayer for the selective Li+ conduction and Li2S regulation toward high-performance Li-S batteries.

Heterogeneous MoSe2/Nitrogen‐Doped‐Carbon Nanoarrays: Engineering Atomic Interface for Potassium‐Ion Storage

AbstractOwing to the lower price and higher safety, developing high‐performance K‐ion batteries (KIBs) is of great significance as an alternative to Li‐ion batteries. High‐energy‐density MoSe2 has been identified as a promising anode material for KIBs; however, its electrochemical reversibility remains a big challenge. Herein, heterogenous MoSe2/N‐doped carbon nanoarrays demonstrate a brilliant performance as KIBs anode materials. The as‐formed hetero‐interface weakens the KSe bond of discharged products (K2Se), the length of KSe bond is stretched by 3.9% with an enlargement of 19.2% in angle compared with pure K2Se, greatly promoting the regeneration of MoSe bond during charge. Moreover, the atomically inter‐overlapping feature leads to an expanded MoSe2 interlayer distance of 1.20 nm that enables a much faster K‐ion diffusion. Consequently, this nanoarray delivers an unprecedented K‐ion storage performance, that is, a capacity of 402 mAh g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 over 200 cycles, and a long cycle life over 1000 cycles at 1.0 A g−1 with 307 mAh g−1 capacity retention.

Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysis on Co(OH)2@MnO2 Decorated Carbon Nanoarrays: Effect of Heterostructure, Conductivity and Charge Storgae Capability

Self-supporting three-dimensional (3D) transition metal electrodes have been considered for designing high-performance non-noble metal oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts owing to their advantages such as binder-free, good mass transfer, and large specific surface area. However, the poor conductivity of ((oxy)hydr)oxides and the difficulty in adjusting their electronic structure limit their application. As an alternative strategy, instead of constituting the array electrode by the active components themselves, we herein report 3D Co(OH)2@MnO2 heterostructure decorated carbon nanoarrays grown directly on carbon paper (Co(OH)2@MnO2-CNAs). This unique structure can not only enhance electrical conductivity but also provide a larger specific surface area, and facilitate electrolyte diffusion and ion transport. The heterostructured Co(OH)2@MnO2 formed via incorporation with MnO2 facilitates the transition of CoII to CoIII in Co(OH)2 and it increases the storage of oxidative charge in the catalyst, leading to an OER activity matching with benchmark RuO2 and good stability. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the improved OER performance can be attributed to the formation of the heterojunction structure, resulting in the modulation of the electronic structure of Co atoms and the reduction of the free energy barrier of the rate-determining step for the OER.

MOF-derived CoP3/FeP on nitrogen-doped carbon nanoarray boosted high-performance hydrogen evolution

• CoP 3 /FeP on nitrogen-doped carbon nanoarrays for HER was prepared. • The hybrids were produced by a low-temperature phosphating reaction. • The hybrids possess good HER activity and higher stability. • The features are ascribed to synergistic enhancement. With the gradual exhaustion of fossil energy and the increasingly serious climate problem, hydrogen, as a clean and sustainable energy source, has become the focus of new energy development due to its high energy density. Here, we reported a stable performance nitrogen-doped carbon material coated with CoP 3 /FeP nanoarrays (N C@CoP 3 /FeP) which is produced by a low-temperature phosphating reaction. The experiment proves that combining the phosphide with the nitrogen-doped carbon material increases the electron mobility of the catalyst and improves the slow kinetics of the electrochemical reaction. The obtained N C@CoP 3 /FeP had excellent electrocatalytic performance in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 electrolyte, the initial overpotential of N C@CoP 3 /FeP was only 50.04 mV with a low Tafel slope (70 mV dec −1 ) and impedance. Additionally, this electrode offers excellent durability whose current density remains 96.3% after 6 h.

One-dimensional nitrogen doped porous carbon nano-array arranged by carbon nanotubes for electrochemical sensing ascorbic acid, dopamine and uric acid simultaneously

In this work, one-dimensional nitrogen doped porous carbon nano-arrays arranged by carbon nanotube (1D CNTs@NPC) were first constructed, using a coating technology at room temperature and followed by high temperature carbonization. It was expected that the resulting glassy carbon electrodes modified by 1D CNTs@NPC (CNTs@NPC/GCE) could express different electrochemical responses to ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), by virtue of the synergistic-improved effect between CNTs and NPC. Under the optimized conditions, there were excellent analytical parameters for CNTs@NPC/GCE to detect AA, DA and UA, i.e. a wide linear range of 40–2100 μM for AA, 0.5–49 μM for DA and 3–50 μM for AA with low detection limits of 0.36 μM, 0.02 μmol l−1 and 0.57 μM respectively. Importantly, the proposed CNTs@NPC/GCE was efficiently applied to determine AA, DA and UA in some real samples with high stability, reproducibility and selectivity. This work will offer an efficient potential for diagnosing ascorbic acid, dopamine or uric acid-related diseases on clinical testing in future.

Iron Oxide Nanoneedles Anchored on N-Doped Carbon Nanoarrays as an Electrode for High-Performance Hybrid Supercapacitor

Iron oxides have been widely recognized in the energy storage field, owing to the high theoretical capacitance, low cost, and environmental friendliness. However, the intrinsic poor electrical cond...

Matching design of high-performance electrode materials with different energy-storage mechanism suitable for flexible hybrid supercapacitors

The realization of advanced hybrid supercapacitors needs the optimal match of different types of high-performance electrode materials. Porous biomass carbon with high specific surface area of 2217.8 m2 g−1 and large specific capacity of 112.5 mAh g−1 (337 F g−1) is prepared from cornstalk. Battery-type Ni3Se2 nanoarray materials with ultra-long nanowire array structure and the specific capacity of 132.4 mAh g−1 are synthesized via a facile solvothermal method. Due to the structure and performance advantages of porous biomass carbon and Ni3Se2 nanoarrays, flexible hybrid supercapacitors are assembled by matching-design of electrode materials with different energy-storage mechanism. This full-cell flexible hybrid device has a wide voltage window of 0–1.6 V, superior energy density of 38.8 Wh kg−1, excellent mechanical flexibility and low-temperature resistance. Therefore, the current work not only shows a feasible designing-method for flexible hybrid supercapacitors, but also provides a promising candidate for small, flexible, and smart electronic device.

Three-Dimensional SiC/Holey-Graphene/Holey-MnO2 Architectures for Flexible Energy Storage with Superior Power and Energy Densities.

Although nanostructured materials have recently enabled a dramatic improvement of the current energy-storage units in portable electronics with enhanced functionality, it is still challenging to provide a cost-efficient solution to attain the ultrahigh energy and power densities of supercapacitors (SCs) since nearly arbitrary electrodes are limited to the thinner porous structure with de facto rather low mass loading (∼1 mg cm-2) because of the huge limitations of pronounced impaired ion transport in subnanometer pores in thicker compact electrodes. In this contribution, we report the fabrication of a macro/mesoporous hybrid hierarchical nanocomposite SiC/holey-graphene/holey-MnO2 (SiC/HG/h-MnO2) with tailored porosity by knitting together the quasi-aligned single-crystalline doped 3C-SiC nanowire array and in situ surface-reduced holey graphene framework into a three-dimensional quasi-ordered structure, which enables the mass growth of ultrathin h-MnO2 nanosheets at approximately practical levels of mass loading. The produced synergistically favorable interconnected porous architecture allows for the highly efficient electron transfer and rapid ion transport up to interior surfaces of the network. Remarkably, the all-solid-state flexible asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) made with SiC/HG/h-MnO2 and SiC/graphitic carbon (GC) nanoarrays are mechanically robust and show a high areal capacity (0.32 mWh cm-2) and a high rate capability (280 mW cm-2) at ultrahigh mass loading (6.5 mg cm-2), much higher than most of previous superior SCs in aqueous or gelled electrolytes and thus offer an entirely new prototype of textile-based ASCs, which represents a critical step toward practical applications for various portable electronics.

Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: Self‐Supported and Flexible Sulfur Cathode Enabled via Synergistic Confinement for High‐Energy‐Density Lithium–Sulfur Batteries (Adv. Mater. 33/2019)

In article number 1902228, Jun Liu, Yan Yu, Min Zhu, and co-workers describe the design and use of a flexible sulfur cathode integrating sulfur, flexible carbon cloth, and N-doped carbon nanoarrays with embedded CoP for lithium–sulfur batteries. The structure and the synergistic confinement for soluble lithium polysulfides lead to an outstanding long-term cycling performance and an ultralow decay of 0.016% per cycle over 600 cycles at 2C.