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Sulfur encapsulated in porous carbon nanospheres and coated with conductive polyaniline as cathode of lithium–sulfur battery

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Abstract

We report a novel composite, sulfur (S) encapsulated in porous carbon nanospheres (PCNS) and coated with conductive polyaniline (PANI) (PCNS-S@PANI), as cathode of lithium–sulfur battery. PCNS is prepared by convenient and controllable hydrothermal synthetic route and loaded with S via chemical deposition and then coated with conductive polyaniline via in situ polymerization under the control of ascorbic acid. The physical and electrochemical performances of the resulting PCNS-S@PANI are investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, thermogravimetric analysis, electronic conductivity measurement, galvanostatic charge–discharge test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It is found that PCNS-S@PANI exhibits excellent charge–discharge performances as cathode of lithium–sulfur battery: delivering a discharge capacity of 881 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C (1 C = 1672 mA g−1) with a capacity retention of 72 % after 100 cycles and a rate capacity of 324 mAh g−1 at 2 C. These natures can be attributed to the co-contribution of PCNS and conductive PANI to the improvement in electronic conductivity and chemical stability of sulfur cathode.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are highly grateful for the financial support from the joint project of National Natural Science Foundation of China and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. U1401248), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. S2013040016471), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (Grant Nos. 2013M530369 and 2014T70819), the key project of Science and Technology in Guangdong Province (Grant Nos. 2012A090300012 and 2013B090800013), and the scientific research project of Department of Education of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2013CXZDA013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Xiaogang Li & Weishan Li

  2. School of Chemistry and Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Weishan Li

  3. Engineering Research Center of MTEES (Ministry of Education), Research Center of BMET (Guangdong Province), Engineering Lab. of OFMHEB (Guangdong Province), Key Lab. of ETESPG (GHEI), and Innovative Platform for ITBMD (Guangzhou Municipality), South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Mumin Rao & Weishan Li

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  1. Xiaogang Li
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Correspondence to Weishan Li.

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Li, X., Rao, M. & Li, W. Sulfur encapsulated in porous carbon nanospheres and coated with conductive polyaniline as cathode of lithium–sulfur battery. J Solid State Electrochem 20, 153–161 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-015-3013-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-015-3013-6

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