title: Sulfur nanodots electrodeposited on ni foam as high-performance cathode for Li-S batteries.
abstract: In this Letter, we report the preparation of sulfur nanodots (2 nm average) electrodeposited on flexible nickel foam and their application as high-performance cathode of Li-S batteries. An electrodepostion method was applied to prepare the cathode at room temperature and the sulfur mass was controllable from 0.21 to 4.79 mg/cm(2) in a large area of over 100 cm(2). The optimized cathode with 0.45 mg/cm(2) S on Ni foam displayed high initial discharge capacity (1458 mAh/g at 0.1 C), high rate capability (521 mAh/g at 10 C), and long cycling stability (895 mAh/g after 300 cycles at 0.5 C and 528 mAh/g after 1400 cycles at 5 C). Moreover, in situ Raman and transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated the fundamentals of reversible electrochemical reaction between S and Li2S nanodots. This fast, facile, and one-step cathode preparation method with excellent electrochemical performance will lead to technological advances of S cathode in Li-S batteries.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yuxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: Li−S batteries; S nanodots on Ni foam; carbon and binder-free; electrodeposition; high-performance cathode