Homogenous conduction: Stable multifunctional gel polymer electrolyte for lithium-sulfur batteries

• Published in: Colloids and surfaces. A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects Physicochemical and engineering aspects, 2024-01, Vol.680, p.132732, Article 132732
• Main Authors: Jiang, Yu, Yang, Rong, Liu, Zhuoyue, Fan, Chaojiang, Yang, Ruixuan, Dong, Xin, Jiang, Bailing, Yan, Yinglin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon nanofiber; Gel polymer electrolyte; Halloysite; Interface; Lithium-sulfur batteries
• ISSN: 0927-7757; 1873-4359
• DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2023.132732

The low sulfur utilization rate and polysulfide shuttle are the main reasons that hinder the practical process of lithium-sulfur batteries. Here, an effective structural engineering strategy of multifunctional gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) by electrospinning was proposed. The HCNF@HPAN-GPE for lithium-sulfur batteries contained halloysite-base carbon nanofibers (HCNF) offered abundant active sites as sulfur fixation layer and halloysite-base polyacrylonitrile (HPAN) provided ion transport channel as ion transport layer. Both layers were abundant in the halloysite nanotubes as “transduction segment” and established the synergistic interface conduction. The HCNF@HPAN-GPE exhibited an ionic conductivity of 8.01 × 10−3 S cm−1. Therefore, the HCNF@HPAN-GPE displayed excellent interface compatibility and stabilized lithium deposition/ stripping over 800 h. Meanwhile, it demonstrated an initial discharge specific capacity of 1461.2 mA h g−1 at 0.1 C and an ultra-low-capacity attenuation of 0.056 % per cycle of 800 cycles at 1 C. In sum, this study may provide a novel strategy for the effective design of GPE toward the high performance lithium-sulfur batteries. The surface of halloysite nanotube had electronegative groups, which is affinity with lithium ions, and provided ion transport channels. The structural engineering strategy of composite GPE can simultaneously limit the polysulfide shuttle and have good ion transport capacity. The uniformly distributed halloysite enhanced the homogeneous conduction of GPE, which was conducive to improving the electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur battery. [Display omitted]