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Nano Research 2018, 11(6): 3480-3489 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2023-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 22 May 2018

Catalyzing polysulfide conversion by g-C3N4 in a graphene network for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries

Show Author's Information Meng Wang1,§,  Qinghua Liang2,§,  Junwei Han1,  Ying Tao1( ),  Donghai Liu1,  Chen Zhang3,  Wei Lv2,  Quan-Hong Yang1( )
Nanoyang GroupSchool of Chemical Engineering and TechnologyCollaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin)Tianjin UniversityTianjin300072China
Engineering Laboratory for Functionalized Carbon MaterialsShenzhen Key Laboratory for Graphene-based MaterialsGraduate School at ShenzhenTsinghua UniversityShenzhen518055China
School of Marine Science and TechnologyTianjin UniversityTianjin300072China

§ Meng Wang and Qinghua Liang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
graphene, lithium-sulfur batteries, lithium polysulfide, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), catalytic conversion
Cite this article:
Wang M, Liang Q, Han J, et al. Catalyzing polysulfide conversion by g-C3N4 in a graphene network for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Research, 2018, 11(6): 3480-3489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2023-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries with a high energy density has been plagued by the poor cycling stability of the sulfur cathode, which is a result of the insulating nature of sulfur and the dissolution of polysulfides. Much work has been done to construct nanostructured or doped carbon as a porous or polar host for promising sulfur cathodes, although restricting the polysulfide shuttle effect by improving the redox reaction kinetics is more attractive. Herein, we present a well-designed strategy by introducing graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) into a three-dimensional hierarchical porous graphene assembly to achieve a synergistic combination of confinement and catalyzation of polysulfides. The porous g-C3N4 nanosheets in situ formed inside the graphene network afford a highly accessible surface to catalyze the transformation of polysulfides, and the hierarchical porous graphene-assembled carbon can function as a conductive network and provide appropriate space for g-C3N4 catalysis in the sulfur cathode. Thus, this hybrid can effectively improve sulfur utilization and block the dissolution of polysulfides, achieving excellent cycling performance for sulfur cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.


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About this article

Catalyzing polysulfide conversion by g-C3N4 in a graphene network for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries

Show Author's information Meng Wang1,§, Qinghua Liang2,§, Junwei Han1, Ying Tao1( ), Donghai Liu1, Chen Zhang3, Wei Lv2, Quan-Hong Yang1( )
Nanoyang GroupSchool of Chemical Engineering and TechnologyCollaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin)Tianjin UniversityTianjin300072China
Engineering Laboratory for Functionalized Carbon MaterialsShenzhen Key Laboratory for Graphene-based MaterialsGraduate School at ShenzhenTsinghua UniversityShenzhen518055China
School of Marine Science and TechnologyTianjin UniversityTianjin300072China

§ Meng Wang and Qinghua Liang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

The practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries with a high energy density has been plagued by the poor cycling stability of the sulfur cathode, which is a result of the insulating nature of sulfur and the dissolution of polysulfides. Much work has been done to construct nanostructured or doped carbon as a porous or polar host for promising sulfur cathodes, although restricting the polysulfide shuttle effect by improving the redox reaction kinetics is more attractive. Herein, we present a well-designed strategy by introducing graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) into a three-dimensional hierarchical porous graphene assembly to achieve a synergistic combination of confinement and catalyzation of polysulfides. The porous g-C3N4 nanosheets in situ formed inside the graphene network afford a highly accessible surface to catalyze the transformation of polysulfides, and the hierarchical porous graphene-assembled carbon can function as a conductive network and provide appropriate space for g-C3N4 catalysis in the sulfur cathode. Thus, this hybrid can effectively improve sulfur utilization and block the dissolution of polysulfides, achieving excellent cycling performance for sulfur cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.

Keywords: graphene, lithium-sulfur batteries, lithium polysulfide, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), catalytic conversion

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 18 December 2017
Revised: 04 February 2018
Accepted: 11 February 2018
Published: 22 May 2018
Issue date: June 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB932400). Q.-H. Y. is grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51525204) and Y. T. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51702229).

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