Ultrafine Sulfur Nanoparticles in Conducting Polymer Shell as Cathode Materials for High Performance Lithium/Sulfur Batteries

We report the synthesis of ultrafine S nanoparticles with diameter 10 ~ 20 nm via a membrane-assisted precipitation technique. The S nanoparticles were then coated with conducting poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) to form S/PEDOT core/shell nanoparticles. The ultrasmall size of S nanoparticles facilitates the electrical conduction and improves sulfur utilization. The encapsulation of conducting PEDOT shell restricts the polysulfides diffusion, alleviates self-discharging and the shuttle effect, and thus enhances the cycling stability. The resulting S/PEDOT core/shell nanoparticles show initial discharge capacity of 1117 mAh g−1 and a stable capacity of 930 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles.

[1]  Hee‐Tak Kim,et al.  Structural Factors of Sulfur Cathodes with Poly(ethylene oxide) Binder for Performance of Rechargeable Lithium Sulfur Batteries , 2002 .

[2]  Jean-Marie Tarascon,et al.  Li-O2 and Li-S batteries with high energy storage. , 2011, Nature materials.

[3]  Li Li,et al.  Sulfur/Polythiophene with a Core/Shell Structure: Synthesis and Electrochemical Properties of the Cathode for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries , 2011 .

[4]  Jun Liu,et al.  A Soft Approach to Encapsulate Sulfur: Polyaniline Nanotubes for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries with Long Cycle Life , 2012, Advanced materials.

[5]  Lin Gu,et al.  Smaller sulfur molecules promise better lithium-sulfur batteries. , 2012, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[6]  L. Nazar,et al.  Advances in Li–S batteries , 2010 .

[7]  L. Nazar,et al.  A highly ordered nanostructured carbon-sulphur cathode for lithium-sulphur batteries. , 2009, Nature materials.

[8]  Guangbin Ji,et al.  High-rate lithium-sulfur batteries promoted by reduced graphene oxide coating. , 2012, Chemical communications.

[9]  Hee‐Tak Kim,et al.  Rechargeable Lithium Sulfur Battery II. Rate Capability and Cycle Characteristics , 2003 .

[10]  Guangyuan Zheng,et al.  Sulphur–TiO2 yolk–shell nanoarchitecture with internal void space for long-cycle lithium–sulphur batteries , 2013, Nature Communications.

[11]  Sang-Cheol Han,et al.  Effect of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes on Electrochemical Properties of Lithium/Sulfur Rechargeable Batteries , 2003 .

[12]  Sun-Yuan Tsay,et al.  Synthesis and characterization of nano-sized LiFePO4 cathode materials prepared by a citric acid-based sol–gel route , 2004 .

[13]  Arumugam Manthiram,et al.  Lithium–sulphur batteries with a microporous carbon paper as a bifunctional interlayer , 2012, Nature Communications.

[14]  H. Dai,et al.  Graphene-wrapped sulfur particles as a rechargeable lithium-sulfur battery cathode material with high capacity and cycling stability. , 2011, Nano letters.

[15]  Nansheng Xu,et al.  Sulfur Composite Cathode Materials for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries , 2003 .

[16]  Yuriy V. Mikhaylik,et al.  Polysulfide Shuttle Study in the Li/S Battery System , 2004 .

[17]  R. D. Rauh,et al.  Formation of lithium polysulfides in aprotic media , 1977 .

[18]  L. Archer,et al.  Porous hollow carbon@sulfur composites for high-power lithium-sulfur batteries. , 2011, Angewandte Chemie.

[19]  Yi Cui,et al.  High-capacity micrometer-sized Li2S particles as cathode materials for advanced rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. , 2012, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[20]  L. Nazar,et al.  Spherical ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles with high porosity for lithium-sulfur batteries. , 2012, Angewandte Chemie.

[21]  Emanuel Peled,et al.  Electrochemistry of a nonaqueous lithium/sulfur cell , 1983 .

[22]  A. Manthiram,et al.  Core-shell structured sulfur-polypyrrole composite cathodes for lithium-sulfur batteries , 2012 .

[23]  Shichao Zhang,et al.  Preparation and enhanced electrochemical properties of nano-sulfur/poly(pyrrole-co-aniline) cathode material for lithium/sulfur batteries , 2010 .

[24]  Nathalie Ravet,et al.  Electroactivity of natural and synthetic triphylite , 2001 .

[25]  Jianhong Xu,et al.  Membrane dispersion precipitation method to prepare nanopartials , 2004 .

[26]  Jiaqi Huang,et al.  Graphene/single-walled carbon nanotube hybrids: one-step catalytic growth and applications for high-rate Li-S batteries. , 2012, ACS nano.

[27]  Guangyuan Zheng,et al.  Nanostructured sulfur cathodes. , 2013, Chemical Society reviews.

[28]  Rajib Ghosh Chaudhuri,et al.  Synthesis of sulfur nanoparticles in aqueous surfactant solutions. , 2010, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[29]  Xueping Gao,et al.  A Polyaniline‐Coated Sulfur/Carbon Composite with an Enhanced High‐Rate Capability as a Cathode Material for Lithium/Sulfur Batteries , 2012 .

[30]  Hyun-jun Shin,et al.  CNT/PEDOT core/shell nanostructures as a counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells , 2011 .

[31]  L. Nazar,et al.  Graphene-enveloped sulfur in a one pot reaction: a cathode with good coulombic efficiency and high practical sulfur content. , 2012, Chemical communications.

[32]  Chenghua Sun,et al.  Synthesis and electromagnetic, microwave absorbing properties of core-shell Fe3O4-poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) microspheres. , 2011, ACS applied materials & interfaces.