Nickel-decorated TiO 2 nanotube arrays as a self-supporting cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Nickel-decorated TiO2 nanotube arrays as a self-supporting cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries Yuming CHEN1, Wenhao TANG1, Jingru MA1, Ben GE1, Xiangliang WANG1, Yufen WANG (✉)2, Pengfei REN1, and Ruiping LIU (✉)1 1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China 2 Energy & Materials Engineering Center, College of Physics and Materials Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
© Higher Education Press 2020
ABSTRACT: Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered to be one of the strong competitors to replace lithium-ion batteries due to their large energy density. However, the dissolution of discharge intermediate products to the electrolyte, the volume change and poor electric conductivity of sulfur greatly limit their further commercialization. Herein, we proposed a self-supporting cathode of nickel-decorated TiO2 nanotube arrays (TiO2 NTs@Ni) prepared by an anodization and electrodeposition method. The TiO2 NTs with large specific surface area provide abundant reaction space and fast transmission channels for ions and electrons. Moreover, the introduction of nickel can enhance the electric conductivity and the polysulfide adsorption ability of the cathode. As a result, the TiO2 NTs@Ni-S electrode exhibits significant improvement in cycling and rate performance over TiO2 NTs, and the discharge capacity of the cathode maintains 719 mA$h$g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 C. KEYWORDS:
lithium–sulfur battery; TiO2; self-supporting; polysulfide intermediate
Contents 1 Introduction 2 Experimental 2.1 Preparation of highly ordered TiO2 NTs 2.2 Preparation of highly ordered TiO2 NTs@Ni 2.3 Sulfur loading in TiO2 NTs and TiO2 NTs@Ni 2.4 Characterization 2.5 Electrochemical measurement 2.6 Theoretical calculations 3 Results and discussion 4 Conclusions Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests
Received February 14, 2020; accepted May 7, 2020 E-mails: [email protected] (R.L.), [email protected] (Y.W.)
Acknowledgements References
1
Introduction
Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are regarded as one of the most promising energy storage candidates due to their advantages of high theoretical capacity (1675 mA$h$g–1) and energy density (2567 W$h$kg–1) based on the redox reaction between sulfur and lithium to form lithium sulfide (16Li + S8 = 8Li2S) [1–3]. Although sulfur cathode materials have the advantages of low price, abundant reserves and low toxicity [4–5], the poor conductivity and enormous volume expansion of sulfur cathode during the cycling process and the dissolution of intermediate lithium polysulfide species (LiPSs) limit the development of Li–S batteries [6–7].
2
Front. Mater. Sci.
Up to now, a wide variety of host materials have been proposed to boost the performance of Li–S batteries, including carbon material [8–9], conductive polymers [10], metal oxides [11–12], etc. Benefiting from their good electrical conductivity and adjustable pore structure, carbon materials are widely used as hosting materials for Li
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