posted on 2021-06-02, 15:34authored byShaojie Chen, Jingxuan Zhang, Zeyu Wang, Lu Nie, Xiangchen Hu, Yi Yu, Wei Liu
Lithium–sulfur
batteries have ultrahigh theoretical energy
densities, which makes them one of the most promising next-generation
energy storage systems. However, it is still difficult to achieve
large-scale commercialization because of the severe lithium polysulfide
(LiPS) shuttle effect and low sulfur loading. Here, we report a flexible
lithium–sulfur battery of a high sulfur loading with the assistance
of NiCo2O4 nanofiber array grown carbon cloth.
The NiCo2O4 nanofibers are ideal electrocatalysts
for accelerating LiPS conversion kinetics through strong chemical
interactions. Therefore, the composite cathode delivers a high specific
capacity of 1280 mAh g–1 at 0.2 C with a sulfur
loading of 3.5 mg cm–2, and it can maintain a high
specific capacity of 660 mAh g–1 after 200 cycles,
showing a good cycle stability. The “layer-by-layer”
stacking strategy enables the Li–S battery with a high S loading
of ∼9.0 mg cm–2 to deliver a high areal capacity
of 8.9 mAh cm–2.