Abstract
We report on a simple and facile synthesis route for the sulfur/graphene oxide composite via ultrasonic mixing of the nano-sulfur and graphene oxide aqueous suspensions followed by a low-temperature heat treatment. High-resolution transmission and scanning electronic microscopy observations revealed the formation of a highly porous structure consisting of sulfur with uniform graphene oxide coating on its surface. The resulting sulfur/graphene oxide (S/GO) composite exhibited high and stable specific discharge capacities of 591 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 C and good rate capability. This enhanced electrochemical performance could be attributed to the effective confining the polysulfides dissolution and accommodation of the volume changes during the Li-S electrochemical reaction by the functional groups on the graphene oxide coating layer. Furthermore, the highly developed porous structure of S/GO composite favors the enhanced ion transport and electrolyte diffusion.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Research Grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan and by a Subproject supported under the Technology Commercialization Project by the World Bank and the Government of Kazakhstan. The authors acknowledge the support of the Central Research Office (Mr. G. Nygmetov and Mr. Y. Iskakov) and the Commercialization Office (Mr. D. Zhumagulov) for providing administrative support for this work.
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Zhang, Y., Zhao, Y. & Bakenov, Z. A simple approach to synthesize nanosized sulfur/graphene oxide materials for high-performance lithium/sulfur batteries. Ionics 20, 1047–1050 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-014-1165-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-014-1165-5