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Nano Research 2018, 11(3): 1238-1246 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1737-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 02 February 2018

Hollow carbon nanofibers with dynamic adjustable pore sizes and closed ends as hosts for high-rate lithium-sulfur battery cathodes

Show Author's Information Xiang-Qian Zhang,  Bin He,  Wen-Cui Li,  An-Hui Lu( )
State Key Laboratory of Fine ChemicalsSchool of Chemical EngineeringFaculty of ChemicalEnvironmental and Biological Science and TechnologyDalian University of TechnologyLinggong Road 2Dalian116024China
Keywords:
hollow carbon nanofibers, pore-adjusting strategy, sulfur cathodes, rate capability, energy materials
Cite this article:
Zhang X-Q, He B, Li W-C, et al. Hollow carbon nanofibers with dynamic adjustable pore sizes and closed ends as hosts for high-rate lithium-sulfur battery cathodes. Nano Research, 2018, 11(3): 1238-1246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1737-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Designing a better carbon framework is critical for harnessing the high theoretical capacity of Li-S batteries and avoiding their drawbacks, such as the insulating nature of sulfur, active material loss, and the polysulfide shuttle reaction. Here, we report an ingenious design of hollow carbon nanofibers with closed ends and protogenetic mesopores in the shell that can be retracted to micropores after sulfur infusion. Such dynamic adjustable pore sizes ensure a high sulfur loading, and more importantly, eliminate excessive contact of sulfur species with the electrolyte. Together, the high aspect ratio and thin carbon shells of the carbon nanofibers facilitate rapid transport of Li+ ions and electrons, and the closed-end structure of the carbon nanofibers further blocks polysulfide dissolution from both ends, which is remarkably different from that for carbon nanotubes with open ends. The obtained sulfur-carbon cathodes exhibit excellent performance marked by high sulfur utilization, superior rate capability (1, 170, 1, 050, and 860 mA·h·g-1 at 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 C (1 C = 1.675 A·g-1), respectively), and a stable reversible capacity of 847 mA·h·g-1 after 300 cycles at a high rate of 2.0 C.


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About this article

Hollow carbon nanofibers with dynamic adjustable pore sizes and closed ends as hosts for high-rate lithium-sulfur battery cathodes

Show Author's information Xiang-Qian Zhang, Bin He, Wen-Cui Li, An-Hui Lu( )
State Key Laboratory of Fine ChemicalsSchool of Chemical EngineeringFaculty of ChemicalEnvironmental and Biological Science and TechnologyDalian University of TechnologyLinggong Road 2Dalian116024China

Abstract

Designing a better carbon framework is critical for harnessing the high theoretical capacity of Li-S batteries and avoiding their drawbacks, such as the insulating nature of sulfur, active material loss, and the polysulfide shuttle reaction. Here, we report an ingenious design of hollow carbon nanofibers with closed ends and protogenetic mesopores in the shell that can be retracted to micropores after sulfur infusion. Such dynamic adjustable pore sizes ensure a high sulfur loading, and more importantly, eliminate excessive contact of sulfur species with the electrolyte. Together, the high aspect ratio and thin carbon shells of the carbon nanofibers facilitate rapid transport of Li+ ions and electrons, and the closed-end structure of the carbon nanofibers further blocks polysulfide dissolution from both ends, which is remarkably different from that for carbon nanotubes with open ends. The obtained sulfur-carbon cathodes exhibit excellent performance marked by high sulfur utilization, superior rate capability (1, 170, 1, 050, and 860 mA·h·g-1 at 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 C (1 C = 1.675 A·g-1), respectively), and a stable reversible capacity of 847 mA·h·g-1 after 300 cycles at a high rate of 2.0 C.

Keywords: hollow carbon nanofibers, pore-adjusting strategy, sulfur cathodes, rate capability, energy materials

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 18 April 2017
Revised: 18 April 2017
Accepted: 22 June 2017
Published: 02 February 2018
Issue date: March 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB934104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21225312 and 21376047), and Cheung Kong Scholars Program of China (No. T2015036).

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