Oxygenated Nitrogen-Doped Microporous Nanocarbon as a Permselective Interlayer for Ultrastable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Wanlong Li, Yusheng Ye, Ji Qian, Yi Xing, Wei Qu, Nanxiang Zhang, Li Li, Feng Wu, Renjie Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The commercial success of lithium-sulfur (Li−S) batteries is still impeded by the severe capacity decay caused by polysulfide shuttling between the cathode and anode. Herein, we present an oxygenated metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived nitrogen-doped microporous carbon (OMNC) interlayer to mitigate the shuttling of polysulfides. The OMNC interlayer with abundant carboxyl and hydroxyl groups is highly permselective to Li + ions but efficiently suppress the penetration of undesired S n 2− ions to the anode side owing to electrostatic interactions. The doped nitrogen in OMNC can enhance the binding with polysulfides, thus alleviating the shuttle effect. The strong affinity of oxygenated groups and doped nitrogen with polysulfides is demonstrated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, the highly conductive OMNC interlayer can also act as a second current collector to promote electron transportation, thus strengthening the utilization of the active material and improving the cycling performance of the cells. At a high sulfur loading up to 3 mg cm −2 , the multi-walled carbon nanotubes/sulfur (CNTs/S) cathode matched with the OMNC interlayer exhibits a reversible capacity of 580.5 mAh g −1 after 610 cycles at 1 C, corresponding to an average capacity loss per cycle of 0.038 %. These results suggest a new way to advanced Li−S batteries using a MOF-derived multifunctional interlayer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1094-1100
Number of pages7
JournalChemElectroChem
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Interlayers
  • lithium sulfur batteries
  • microporous materials
  • nanocarbon
  • nitrogen doping

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Oxygenated Nitrogen-Doped Microporous Nanocarbon as a Permselective Interlayer for Ultrastable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this