Improved Performance and Immobilizing Mechanism of N‐doping Carbon Aerogel with Net Channel via Long‐Chain Directing for Lithium–Sulfur Battery

Abstract

A novel net channel and N‐doping carbon aerogel (CA) are successfully prepared by an in situ and facile method via polyimide (PI) inducting for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. The PI‐directing carbon aerogel (PI‐CA) presents a cross‐linked framework, abundant porosity, and a high specific surface area. PI‐CA spheres present effective immobilizing polysulfides and high loading sulfur for a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 2039.4 m2 g−1 and N‐doping via physical and chemical adsorption. The Li–S batteries with PI‐CA as cathode matrix exhibit excellent performance. In particular, the initial specific capacity of 2PI‐CA/S with sulfur content of 73.8 wt% delivers 1338 mAh g−1 and remains at 1102 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. The enhanced electrochemical performance mainly benefits from the mesh structure of the composite and the interaction between nitrogen and lithium polysulfide. The theoretical calculation by density functional theory (DFT) further supports the template effect of PI and the anchoring mechanism of polysulfides.

Key to intimately coupling metal chalcogenides with a carbon nanonetwork for potassium-ion storage

“…Due to the unique features, including a continuous threedimensional (3D) nanonetwork, high porosity, large surface area and low bulk density, CA has been used as an ideal carbonaceous substrate to prepare carbon-based functional composites by assembling active non-carbon materials. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] In this study, in order to improve the electrochemical performance of MCs with large theoretical capacity, CA is proposed as the carbonaceous substrate to composite with MCs. The synthesis strategy of CA/MC composites is illustrated in Fig.…”

Polymer derived ceramic aerogels

“…Aerogels have recently drawn considerable attention in energy storage applications, for example, carbon-based aerogels are used both as anodes and cathodes for lithium-ion [99][100][101], lithium-sulfur [102][103][104], and sodium-ion [105,106] batteries. Alternatively, they also find use in supercapacitors [107][108][109][110][111], an example for Mxene-rGO (Ti 3 Cr 2 T x -reduced graphene oxide) aerogel is given in Fig.…”

Oxygen‐Doped Carbon Nitride Tubes for Highly Stable Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…Furthermore, it was shown that both, the porous mesh structure of a novel N‐doped carbon aerogel with a channel‐containing framework, and the interaction between nitrogen atoms and lithium cations from lithium polysulfides, facilitate the enhanced electrochemical performance of the battery. [ 14 ]…”

“…Furthermore, it was shown that both, the porous mesh structure of a novel N-doped carbon aerogel with a channel-containing framework, and the interaction between nitrogen atoms and lithium cations from lithium polysulfides, facilitate the enhanced electrochemical performance of the battery. [14] However, even using various complex procedures, the introduced nitrogen content is always low (less than 10 wt%). Therefore, high surface area with more active sites for host materials is necessary.…”