Confining sulfur in sandwich structure of bamboo charcoal and aluminum fluoride (BC@S@AlF3) as a long cycle performance cathode for Li-S batteries

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2019.08.023

Abstract

Abstract:

The ‘shuttle effect’ of polysulfide causing rapid capacity fade and low coulombic efficiency of high energy storage lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Herein, a sandwich structure of bamboo charcoal/sulfur coating by aluminum fluoride (BC@S@AlF₃) composites is designed and fabricated for the first time. The as-designed cathode exhibited excellent electrochemical properties and stable capacity retention. The initial capacity reaches 1119 mA h/g and the capacity after 100 cycles is 869 mA h/g at 0.5 C, which is much stable than that of composite materials without bamboo charcoal or AlF₃ coating. Moreover, the BC@S@AlF₃ cathode presents excellent long-term capacity stability with a capacity decay of 0.073% per cycle during 500 charge/discharge cycles at 1 C, offering a potential for use in high energy Li-S batteries. The physical confinement, chemical anchoring, and catalysis conversion for active sulfur are achieved simultaneously with the AlF₃ coating and bamboo charcoal core with porous structure.

Key words: AlF₃ coating, Strong polarity, Sulfur immobilizers, Lithium-sulfur batteries

Zhenya Luo, Xiao Wang, Weixin Lei, Pengtao Xia, Yong Pan. Confining sulfur in sandwich structure of bamboo charcoal and aluminum fluoride (BC@S@AlF₃) as a long cycle performance cathode for Li-S batteries[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2020, 55: 159-166.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1. Schematic illustrations of (a) the fabrication procedure of BC@S@AlF3; (b) a Li-S battery with the immobilization mechanism for lithium polysulfide of BC@S@AlF3 composite.

Fig. 2. (a) XRD patterns and (b) TG curves of AlF3/S, BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 composites; (c) Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and (d) pore size distribution curve of BC and BC@S composites; (e) XPS spectra of the surface chemical composition and (f) S 2p XPS spectra of the BC@S@AlF3 and BC@S composites.

Fig. 3. SEM images of (a) BC; (b) AlF3/S; (c) BC@S and (d) BC@S@AlF3 composites; (e-f) TEM images with different magnification; (g) SEM image and its corresponding EDX elemental mapping images of S; C; F and Al of BC@S@AlF3 composites; (h) EDX spectrum of BC@S@AlF3 superstructures.

Fig. 4. (a) CV curves of AlF3/S, BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 cathodes; (b) Charge/discharge voltage profile of BC@S@AlF3 cathode in the 1 st, 10th, 50th and 100th cycles; (c) Cycling performance and columbic efficiency of AlF3/S, BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 cathodes at 0.5 C;(d) Long-term cycling performance and columbic efficiency of BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 cathodes at 1 C.

Fig. 5. (a) Rate capability of AlF3/S, BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 cathodes; (b-c) the initial discharge/charge curves at various C rates from 0.2 C to 2 C; (d) Nyquist plots of BC@S and BC@S@AlF3 cathodes after 50 cycles (inset: Nyquist plots of before charge/discharge and an equivalent circuit); (e) UV-vis absorption spectra (inset: digital photos of Li2S6 solution before and after contact with different absorbents at 3 h).

Fig. 6. SEM images of BC@S electrodes (a) before and (c) after 100 cycles, BC@S@AlF3 electrodes (b) before and (d) after 100 cycles.

Table 1 EIS Parameters simulated from the equivalent circuits.

Cycle number	Resistance (Ω)	BC@S	BC@S@AlF₃
Before cycling	R_e	5.13	1.53
	R_ct	154.80	65.96
	R_s	-	-
After 50th cycle	R_e	2.45	3.02
	R_ct	20.87	19.57
	R_s	21.55	13.51

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Confining sulfur in sandwich structure of bamboo charcoal and aluminum fluoride (BC@S@AlF₃) as a long cycle performance cathode for Li-S batteries

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