title: Strong lithium polysulfide chemisorption on electroactive sites of nitrogen-doped carbon composites for high-performance lithium-sulfur battery cathodes.
abstract: Despite the high theoretical capacity of lithium-sulfur batteries, their practical applications are severely hindered by a fast capacity decay, stemming from the dissolution and diffusion of lithium polysulfides in the electrolyte. A novel functional carbon composite (carbon-nanotube-interpenetrated mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon spheres, MNCS/CNT), which can strongly adsorb lithium polysulfides, is now reported to act as a sulfur host. The nitrogen functional groups of this composite enable the effective trapping of lithium polysulfides on electroactive sites within the cathode, leading to a much improved electrochemical performance (1200 mAh g(-1) after 200 cycles). The enhancement in adsorption can be attributed to the chemical bonding of lithium ions by nitrogen functional groups in the MNCS/CNT framework. Furthermore, the micrometer-sized spherical structure of the material yields a high areal capacity (ca. 6 mAh cm(-2)) with a high sulfur loading of approximately 5 mg cm(-2), which is ideal for practical applications of the lithium-sulfur batteries.
authors: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (USA).
authors: Jiangxuan
authors: J
authors: Song
authors: Mikhail L
authors: ML
authors: Gordin
authors: Terrence
authors: T
authors: Xu
authors: Shuru
authors: S
authors: Chen
authors: Zhaoxin
authors: Z
authors: Yu
authors: Hiesang
authors: H
authors: Sohn
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Lu
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Ren
authors: Yuhua
authors: Y
authors: Duan
authors: Donghai
authors: D
authors: Wang
keywords: carbon materials; chemisorption; doping; electrochemistry; lithium-sulfur batteries