title: A Strategy for Configuration of an Integrated Flexible Sulfur Cathode for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
abstract: Lithium-sulfur batteries are regarded as promising candidates for energy storage devices owing to their high theoretical energy density. The practical application is hindered, however, by low sulfur utilization and unsatisfactory capacity retention. Herein, we present a strategy for configuration of the sulfur cathode, which is composed of an integrated carbon/sulfur/carbon sandwich structure on polypropylene separator that is produced using the simple doctor-blade technique. The integrated electrode exhibits excellent flexibility and high mechanical strength. The upper and bottom carbon layers of the sandwich-structured electrode not only work as double current collectors, which effectively improve the conductivity of the electrode, but also serve as good barriers to suppress the diffusion of the polysulfide and buffer the volume expansion of the active materials, leading to suppression of the shuttle effect and low self-discharge behavior.
authors.affiliation: Hubei Collaborative Innovation Centre for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, P.R. China.|Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia.
authors.forename: Hongqiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia.
authors.forename: Wenchao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia.
authors.forename: Huakun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Hubei Collaborative Innovation Centre for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, P.R. China. zguo@uow.edu.au.|Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia. zguo@uow.edu.au.
authors.forename: Zaiping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
keywords: integrated flexible cathodes; lithium-sulfur batteries; self-discharge; shuttle effect