Issue 25, 2015

Flexible copper-stabilized sulfur–carbon nanofibers with excellent electrochemical performance for Li–S batteries

Abstract

By rational design, we fabricated a flexible and free-standing copper-immobilized sulfur–porous carbon nanofiber (denoted as S@PCNFs-Cu) electrode by simply impregnating sulfur into electrospun derived Cu embedded porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs-Cu). The PCNF film with a 3D interconnected structure is used as a conducting matrix to encapsulate sulfur. In addition, the introduction of Cu leads to the formation of a chemical bond between Cu and S, preventing the dissolution of polysulfide during cycling. The micropores and mesopores of PCNF hosts provide free space to accommodate the volume change of S and polysulfide. When used as a cathode material for Li–S batteries, the S@PCNFs-Cu (S content: 52 wt%) exhibits much better electrochemical performance compared to the Cu-free S@PCNF electrode. The S@PCNFs-Cu displays high reversible capacity (680 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 50 mA g−1), excellent rate capability (415 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1) and super Coulombic efficiency of 100%. This strategy of stabilizing S with a small amount of copper nanoparticles can be a very promising method to prepare free-standing cathode material for high-performance Li–S batteries.

Graphical abstract: Flexible copper-stabilized sulfur–carbon nanofibers with excellent electrochemical performance for Li–S batteries

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
24 Mar 2015
Accepted
20 May 2015
First published
21 May 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 10940-10949

Flexible copper-stabilized sulfur–carbon nanofibers with excellent electrochemical performance for Li–S batteries

L. Zeng, Y. Jiang, J. Xu, M. Wang, W. Li and Y. Yu, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 10940 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR01861G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements