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Nano Research 2020, 13(8): 2143-2148 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2821-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 August 2020

Catalytic Co9S8 decorated carbon nanoboxes as efficient cathode host for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries

Show Author's Information Weiwei Sun( ),  Yujie Li,  Shuangke Liu,  Qingpeng Guo,  Yuhao Zhu,  Xiaobin Hong,  Chunman Zheng( ),  Kai Xie
College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
Keywords:
catalyst, Li-S batteries, shuttle effect, Co9S8@C, cathode host
Topics:
CarbonCathodesLithium batteriesLithium compoundsPolysulfidesRedox reactions
Cite this article:
Sun W, Li Y, Liu S, et al. Catalytic Co9S8 decorated carbon nanoboxes as efficient cathode host for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Research, 2020, 13(8): 2143-2148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2821-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries with high specific capacity and energy density can bring enormous opportunities for the next-generation energy storage systems. However, the severe dissolution and shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) is still the key issue that seriously impedes the development of practical Li-S batteries. Here, polar Co9S8 inlaid carbon nanoboxes (Co9S8@C NBs) have been investigated as cathode host for high-performance Li-S batteries. In this integrated structure, Co9S8 nanocrystals not only provide strong chemisorptive capability for polar LiPSs, but also act as a catalyst to accelerate polysulfide redox reactions; while carbon nanobox with large inner space can offer enough space to relieve the volume expansion and physically confine LiPSs’ dissolution. As a result, the S/Co9S8@C NBs cathode exhibits high specific capacity at 1C and the capacity retention was ~ 83% after 400 cycles, corresponding to an average decay rate of only ~ 0.043% per cycle.


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About this article

Catalytic Co9S8 decorated carbon nanoboxes as efficient cathode host for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries

Show Author's information Weiwei Sun( ), Yujie Li, Shuangke Liu, Qingpeng Guo, Yuhao Zhu, Xiaobin Hong, Chunman Zheng( ), Kai Xie
College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

Abstract

Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries with high specific capacity and energy density can bring enormous opportunities for the next-generation energy storage systems. However, the severe dissolution and shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) is still the key issue that seriously impedes the development of practical Li-S batteries. Here, polar Co9S8 inlaid carbon nanoboxes (Co9S8@C NBs) have been investigated as cathode host for high-performance Li-S batteries. In this integrated structure, Co9S8 nanocrystals not only provide strong chemisorptive capability for polar LiPSs, but also act as a catalyst to accelerate polysulfide redox reactions; while carbon nanobox with large inner space can offer enough space to relieve the volume expansion and physically confine LiPSs’ dissolution. As a result, the S/Co9S8@C NBs cathode exhibits high specific capacity at 1C and the capacity retention was ~ 83% after 400 cycles, corresponding to an average decay rate of only ~ 0.043% per cycle.

Keywords: catalyst, Li-S batteries, shuttle effect, Co9S8@C, cathode host

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 11 March 2020
Revised: 18 April 2020
Accepted: 19 April 2020
Published: 05 August 2020
Issue date: August 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovation Talents (No. BX201700103), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2018M633664).

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