Abstract
A carbon-coated sulfur/polyacrylonitrile (C@S/PAN) core-shell structured composite is successfully prepared via a novel solution processing method. The sulfur/polyacrylonitrile (S/PAN) core particle has a diameter of ~ 100 nm, whereas the carbon shell is about 2 nm thick. The as-prepared C@S/PAN composite shows outstanding electrochemical performance in lithium/sulfur (Li/S) batteries delivering a high initial discharge capacity of 1416 mAh g−1. Furthermore, it exhibits ~ 89% retention of the initial reversible capacity over 200 cycles at a constant current rate of 0.1 C. The improved performance contributed by the unique composition and the core-shell structure, wherein carbon matrix can also withstand the volume change of sulfur during the process of charging and discharging as well as provide channels for electron transport. In addition, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) matrix suppresses the shuttle effect by the covalent bonding between sulfur (S) and carbon (C) in the PAN matrix.
Cycling performance of the S/PAN and C@S/PAN electrodes and TEM image of the C@S/PAN composite.
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The authors acknowledge the financial support from the NSFC (Grant No. 21406052), the Program for the Outstanding Young Talents of Hebei Province (Grant No. BJ2014010), Scientific Research Foundation for Selected Overseas Chinese Scholars, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China (Grant No. CG2015003002), and the research grant 5156/GF4 from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2015–2017.
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Peng, H., Wang, X., Zhao, Y. et al. Enhanced electrochemical performance of sulfur/polyacrylonitrile composite by carbon coating for lithium/sulfur batteries. J Nanopart Res 19, 348 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-4049-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-4049-6