Surface Functionalization of Carbon Architecture with Nano‐MnO₂ for Effective Polysulfide Confinement in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Li-S batteries have received tremendous attention owing to their high theoretical capacity (1672 mA h g ), sulfur abundance, and low cost. However, main systemic issues, associated with polysulfide shuttling and low Coulombic efficiency, hinder the practical use of the sulfur electrode in commercial batteries. Herein, we demonstrate an effective strategy of decorating nano-MnO (less than 10 wt %) onto the sulfur reservoir to capture the out-diffused polysulfides through chemical interaction and thereby improve the electrochemical performance of the sulfur electrode without increasing the mass burden of total battery configuration. Pistachio shell-derived sustainable carbon (PC) was employed as effective sulfur containers owing to its structural characteristics (interconnected macro channels and micropores). With the aids of the structural benefits of the PC scaffold and the uniform decoration of nano-MnO , polysulfide shuttling was significantly suppressed and the cycling performance of the sulfur cathode was dramatically improved over 250 cycles.

FeCo Nanoparticle-Loaded Nutshell-Derived Porous Carbon as Sustainable Catalyst in Al-Air Batteries

“…The BET measurements show a surface area of 1173.11 and 1246.4 m 2 g -1 for C-peanut and C-pistachio, respectively. The values are higher than those reported previously (about 800 m 2 g -1 ), benefitting from fine grinding of biomass and KOH treatment prior to the pyrolysis as an innovative attempt in this work [5,7,9,21,36,37]. The surface area, especially for peanut shell-derived carbon, can be further improved by optimizing the physical grinding and the activation process (e.g., by using a larger concentration of KOH and higher ratio of KOH : biomass).…”

“…The N atoms doped into the carbon raise the electronic density of states near the Fermi level which will boost the electron transfer. Loading such nitrogen-doped carbon with transition metals optimizes the O 2 reduction pathway, facilitating the bond breaking of O 2 to furnish high catalytic stability and overall ORR activity [2,3,[8][9][10]. Interestingly, the presence of Fe on carbons was found to promote Ndoping into carbon, giving an ORR catalyst with a fourelectron pathway that promotes high ORR activity [2,11,12].…”

Recent advances of hollow-structured sulfur cathodes for lithium–sulfur batteries

“…Since then, MnO 2 with different structures have been developed as sulfur host materials. [56][57][58] A core-shell composite with l-MnO 2 nanorod encapsulated sulfur was prepared, which exhibited a capacity retention of 82% for 300 cycles at 0.5C. 59 The enhanced high-rate performance was attributed to the unique one-dimensional l-MnO 2 nanorods, which acted as large tunnels to incorporate Li ions, preventing the deposition of solid lithium sulfide.…”

Surface-Functionalized Separator for Stable and Reliable Lithium Metal Batteries: A Review

“…at 25 °C) [ 10 , 11 ]. Furthermore, the adoption of metallic Li as an anode is indispensable to realize high-energy-density batteries such as Li-O 2 and Li-S cells, both of which are being considered the “future of energy storage” [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Due to these promising prospects, a number of research projects focusing on the Li anode have been extensively carried out.…”