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Research Article

Microwave-assisted synthesis of Cr3C2@C core shell structure anchored on hierarchical porous carbon foam for enhanced polysulfide adsorption in Li-S batteries

Xierong Zeng1( ), Jianxin Tu2, Shuangshuang Chen3, Shaozhong Zeng4, Qi Zhang5, Jizhao Zou1, Kezhi Li2( )
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials & Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory for Advance Technology of ceramics, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Carbon/Carbon Composites Research Center, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan 243002, China
College of New Materials and New Energies, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, China
BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, UPV/EHU Science Park, 48940 Leioa, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
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Abstract

In this paper, we use microwave reduction strategy to synthesize a new bi-functional sulfur host material at the service of cathode substrate for lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), the composite is made of hierarchical porous carbon foam supported carbon-encapsulated chromium carbide nano-particles (Cr3C2@C/HPCF), in which the well-distributed conductive Cr3C2 nano-particles can act as powerful chemical adsorbent and are effective in restraining the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). Test results show that the Cr3C2@C/HPCF based sulfur electrodes with 75 wt.% of sulfur exhibit a high initial discharging capacity of 1,321.1 mAh·g-1 at 0.1 C (3.5 mg·cm-2), and a reversible capacity can still maintain stability at 1,002.1 mAh·g-1 after 150 cycles. Even increasing the areal sulfur loading to 4 mg·cm-2, the electrodes can still deliver an initial discharging capacity of 948.0 mAh·g-1 at 0.5 C with ultra-slow capacity decay rate of 0.075% per cycle during 500 cycles. Furthermore, the adsorption energy between the Cr3C2 surface and LiPSs as well as theoretic analysis based on first-principles is also investigated.

Keywords

Cr3C2 nanoparticlescore shell structurechemisorptionsmicrowave reductionhierarchical porous carbon foamLi-S batteries

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Nano Research
Volume 14 Issue 7,
July 2021
Pages 2345-2352
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-3233-7
Cite this article:
Zeng X, Tu J, Chen S, et al. Microwave-assisted synthesis of Cr3C2@C core shell structure anchored on hierarchical porous carbon foam for enhanced polysulfide adsorption in Li-S batteries. Nano Research, 2021, 14(7): 2345-2352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3233-7
Topics:
CarbidesChromium compoundsElectrodesLithium batteriesLithium compoundsNanoparticlesPolysulfidesSynthesis (chemical)

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Received: 18 September 2020
Revised: 25 October 2020
Accepted: 09 November 2020
Published: 05 July 2021
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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