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Boron-doped microporous nano carbon as cathode material for high-performance Li-S batteries

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Abstract

In this study, a boron-doped microporous carbon (BMC)/sulfur nanocomposite is synthesized and applied as a novel cathode material for advanced Li-S batteries. The cell with this cathode exhibits an ultrahigh cycling stability and rate capability. After activation, a capacity of 749.5 mAh/g was obtained on the 54th cycle at a discharge current of 3.2 A/g. After 500 cycles, capacity of 561.8 mAh/g remained (74.96% retention), with only a very small average capacity decay of 0.056%. The excellent reversibility and stability of the novel sulfur cathode can be attributed to the ability of the boron-doped microporous carbon host to both physically confine polysulfides and chemically bind these species on the host surface. Theoretical calculations confirm that boron-doped carbon is capable of significantly stronger interactions with the polysulfide species than undoped carbon, most likely as a result of the lower electronegativity of boron. We believe that this doping strategy can be extended to other metal-air batteries and fuel cells, and that it has promising potential for many different applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program “New Energy Project for Electric Vehicle” (No. 2016YFB0100204), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21373028), Major achievements Transformation Project for Central University in Beijing, Beijing Science and Technology Project (No. D151100003015001) and the Ford University Research Program (URP) project. W. P. W. acknowledges support from George Daniels Educational Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Material Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Feng Wu, Ji Qian, Yusheng Ye, Zhiguo Sun & Renjie Chen

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, Beijing, 100081, China

    Feng Wu & Renjie Chen

  3. School of Computer Science, Mathematics and Engineering, City, University of London, Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0HB, UK

    Weiping Wu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Process and Technology for Materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Bin Xu

  5. Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI, 48121, USA

    Xiaoguang Yang

  6. Electrified Powertrain Engineering, Ford Motor Research and Engineering (Nanjing) Co., Ltd., Nanjing, 211100, China

    Yuhong Xu

  7. Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction-Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Material Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jiatao Zhang

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  1. Feng Wu
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  2. Ji Qian
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  9. Jiatao Zhang
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  10. Renjie Chen
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Correspondence to Renjie Chen.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Wu, F., Qian, J., Wu, W. et al. Boron-doped microporous nano carbon as cathode material for high-performance Li-S batteries. Nano Res. 10, 426–436 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1303-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1303-7

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