title: A Facile Synthesis of High-Surface-Area Sulfur-Carbon Composites for Li/S Batteries.
abstract: Small-grained elemental sulfur is precipitated from sodium thiosulfate (Na2 S2 O3 ) in a carbon-containing oxalic acid (HOOC-COOH) solution through a novel spray precipitation method. Surface area analysis, elemental mapping, and transmission electron micrographs revealed that the spray-precipitated sulfur particles feature 11 times higher surface area compared to conventional precipitated sulfur, with homogeneous distribution in the carbon. Moreover, the scanning electron micrographs show that these high-surface-area sulfur particles are firmly adhered to and covered by carbon. This precipitated S-C composite exhibits high discharge capacity with about 75 % capacity retention. The initial discharge capacity was further improved to 1444 mA h g(-1) by inserting a free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube layer in between the cathode and the separator. Moreover, with the help of the fixed capacity charging technique, 91.6 % capacity retention was achieved.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731.
authors.forename: Mohammad Rejaul
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731. konstan@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Konstantinov
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731.
authors.forename: Hua-Kun
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731.
authors.forename: Shi-Xue
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 (Australia), Fax: (+61) 2-42985731. jiazhao@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jia-Zhao
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: carbon; discharge capacity; spray precipitation; sulfur; sulfur-carbon composite