ZnS nanolayer coated hollow carbon spheres with enhanced rate and cycling performance for Li-S batteries

Abstract

Conductive carbon structure has been considered as a promising sulfur-hosting material as the cathode of lithium-sulfur batteries. However, the issue of polysulfide shuttling requires an additional component to help restrict and convert sulfur substances. Herein, in this work, hollow and porous carbon nanospheres (HCS) are synthesized by a template method and a high-temperature carbonization treatment. A thin layer of ZnS coating is then deposited on the HCS-based sulfur (ZnS@HCS/S) cathode with controlled thickness, and the overall electrochemical properties are systematically evaluated. Results show that with 30 nm-thick ZnS coating, the cathode reveals an improved capacity of 1411 mA h g −1 , and higher capacities from 0.2 to 3 C rate compared with bare HCS/S cathode. Moreover, the ZnS coating also enhances the cycling stability of ZnS@HCS/S cathode over 280 cycles at 0.5 C, with only 0.2% capacity decay per cycle. This work demonstrates potential applications for high-performance lithiumsulfur batteries.

Yeast-Derived Sulfur Host for the Application of Sustainable Li–S Battery Cathode

“…This increases the electrical resistivity and reduces the capacity, causing a serious impact on the overall performance of the battery [12,13]. To solve these problems, substantial efforts were devoted to design appropriate host materials and structures with both high electrical conductivity and excellent mechanical flexibility, such as conductive polymers [14,15], graphene [16,17], carbon nanotubes [18], and some metal oxides and sulfides [19][20][21]. Recently, as a viable and effective alternative, biomass-derived carbon materials were widely developed for both Li-S batteries and other metal-ion batteries because of their sustainability, easy availability, low-cost, and environmental friendliness [22][23][24][25].…”