Surface-Engineered Cotton Fabric-Derived Functional Carbon Cloth and Its Application in Advanced Lithium–Sulfur Full Cells

Sulfur-based batteries are promising candidates for the next generation of advanced energy storage systems owing to their high specific capacity and energy density. However, the performance degradation during cycling arising from the formidable shuttle effect in conjunction with slow reaction kinetics hinders the practical application of these batteries. Here, for the first time, a facile and scalable sputter deposition method is explored to prepare a semi-metallic molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂) functionalized carbon cloth via a sustainable approach utilizing cotton cloth as the carbon precursor for lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs). The hierarchical three-dimensional network with long-range effective channels for electron transport in synergism with conductive metal oxide nanolayer results in superior electrochemical performance. Apart from strong adsorption, the metal oxide nanolayer facilitates the efficient transformation of polysulfides. As a result, the simultaneous capture conversion leads to an impressive initial discharge capacity of 844 mA h g^–1 at 0.5 C-rate with an extremely slow fade rate of 0.06% per cycle over 650 cycles and 99% Coulombic efficiency. Additionally, lithium metal is electrodeposited on a copper collector to eradicate the undesirable use of excessive lithium. The full cell with a sulfur loading of 5.09 mg cm^–2 reveals good electrochemical reversibility with a stable cycling capacity. The findings of this work shall present a sustainable approach for the large-scale preparation of functionalized carbon cloth, which suits the demands raised by advanced electrochemical energy storage and generation systems.