Article Title

Simultaneous growth of carbon nanotubes on inner/outer surfaces of porous polyhedra: Advanced sulfur hosts for lithium-sulfur batteries

Authors

Hengyi Lu, State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Shanghai 201620, China State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China
Chao Zhang, State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Shanghai 201620, China
Youfang Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China
Yunpeng Huang, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China
Mingkai Liu, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Green Synthetic Chemistry for Functional Materials, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China
Tianxi Liu, State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Innovation Center for Textile Science and Technology, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Shanghai 201620, China State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China

Keywords

zeolitic imidazolate framework-67(ZIF-67), carbon nanotubes, in situ growth, Li-S batteries

Abstract

ABSTRACT Metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived functional carbon matrices have recently attracted considerable attention as energy-storage materials. However, the development of MOF-derived carbon materials with hierarchical structures, capable of thoroughly preventing the “shuttling” of polysulfides, is still a major challenge. Herein, we synthesized cobalt nanoparticle-containing porous carbon polyhedra with in situ grown N-doped carbon nanotube (CNT) backbone (NCCNT-Co), using zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) as starting material. The obtained NCCNT-Co, with interconnected N-doped CNTs on both inner and outer surfaces, possesses an integrated conductive network, which can further accelerate the transport of electrons/ions inside the whole sulfur cathode. The mesoporous structure derived from the ZIF-67 matrix and the densely immobilized CNTs, coupled with the homogeneously doped N atoms and Co nanoparticles, can efficiently trap lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) by physical confinement and chemical interactions. Furthermore, the hierarchical structure of the porous carbon polyhedra enables a high sulfur loading of up to 76 wt.% and can also buffer the volume changes of active sulfur during the lithiation process. As a result, the NCCNT-Co-S cathode delivers a high initial specific capacity of 1,300 mAh·g−1 at 0.1 C, along with a high capacity of 860 mAh·g−1 after 500 cycles at 1 C, with an extremely low capacity decay of 0.024% per cycle.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2130-9

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Hengyi Lu,Chao Zhang,Youfang Zhang,Yunpeng Huang,Mingkai Liu,Tianxi Liu, Simultaneous growth of carbon nanotubes on inner/outer surfaces of porous polyhedra: Advanced sulfur hosts for lithium-sulfur batteries. NanoRes.2018, 11(12): 6155–6166