Employing Ni-Embedded Porous Graphitic Carbon Fibers for High-Efficiency Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2022-03, Vol.14 (8), p.10457-10466
• Main Authors: Wang, Changhao, Li, Yahao, Cao, Feng, Zhang, Yongqi, Xia, Xinhui, Zhang, Lingjie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c24755

The rational electrode design is one of the most important ways to enhance the electrochemical properties of lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). In this contribution, we use Ni-embedded porous graphitic carbon fiber (PGCF@Ni) as the scaffold to construct a novel cathode and anode for LSBs. With the help of elaborate surface engineering, the constructed solid electrolyte interface (SEI)@Li/PGCF@Ni anodes can effectively restrain the growth of lithium dendrites during the cycle, exhibiting an ultralow overpotential of ∼10 mV for 2000 h at 1 mA cm /1 mA h cm . The underlying mechanism is further investigated by COMSOL Multiphysics simulations. Additionally, the PGCF@Ni/S cathode fabricated by the molten sulfurizing method manifests superior rate performance and stability. Ultimately, the assembled SEI@Li/PGCF@Ni||PGCF@Ni/S full battery exhibits prominent electrochemical property with a high capacity retention of about 77.9% after 600 cycles at 1 C. Such success at the performance improvement in LSBs may open up avenues toward other rational designs of high-quality electrodes in electrochemical energy storage.