Polyaniline-coated Ni3N microflowers as sulfur host for advanced Li–S battery

• Published in: Journal of electroanalytical chemistry (Lausanne, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-11, Vol.948, p.117818, Article 117818
• Main Authors: Lu, Xiaojing, Wang, Junhai, Wang, Lan, Zheng, Jiandong, Lv, Jinjie, Huang, Jiarui, Joo, Sang Woo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Li–S battery; Microflower; Ni3N; Polyaniline; Sulfur host
• ISSN: 1572-6657; 1873-2569
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2023.117818

•A novel polyaniline-coated Ni3N/S microflowers was developed.•Ni3N microflowers are prepared via hydrothermal reaction followed by a nitridation process.•Ni3N/S@PANI microflower cathode exhibit high stable capacity and superior rate performance.•High electrochemical performance is due to hierarchical structure of Ni3N and PANI coating. This paper presents novel polyaniline-coated Ni3N/S (Ni3N/S@PANI) microflowers as sulfur host for lithium–sulfur battery to solve the problems of cathode, such as poor electrical conductivity caused by sulfur and shuttle effect caused by multi-sulfide dissolution. Microflower-like Ni3N is synthesized using hydrothermal reaction followed by a nitridation procedure. The Ni3N/S@PANI microflowers are obtained by compounding the Ni3N microflowers with sulfur powder, followed by polyaniline coating. The as-prepared Ni3N/S@PANI microflowers exhibit the first capacity of 935 mAh/g at 0.5 A/g and retain 678 mAh/g after 200 cycles. The high electrochemical property is due mainly to the porous hierarchical structure of the Ni3N and the highly conductive polyaniline coating, which provide sufficient interspace to mitigate the volume expansion of sulfur and trap polysulfides, and inhibit the dissolution of polysulfides, respectively.