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Graphene/carbon aerogel for high areal capacity sulfur cathode of Li-S batteries

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Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries are promising high-energy-density devices for next-generation energy storage systems. One of the most challenging issues impeding their practical application is how to develop cost-effective thick sulfur cathode with fast kinetics. Carbon aerogels (CAs) show great potential as host for lithium-sulfur batteries, while the preparation of CAs usually requires special time-consuming drying techniques to retain their porous structure. In this work, we develop a facile method to tailor the flexible structure of the CAs by simply using NaCl, leading to a more stable porous structure that resists the collapse of pores during conventional drying process. High gravimetric and areal sulfur loading can be realized in the synthesized hierarchically porous carbon aerogel electrode. With 69 wt% and over 6 mg cm−2 sulfur loading on the cathode, the cell delivers an initial capacity of 1121 mA h g−1 and a reversible capacity of 797 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles under the current density of 0.2 C.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB0104200) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. 5-ZJL8) and Postgraduates Research Innovation Project (CX2018B040).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China

    Furong Qin, Kai Zhang, Zhian Zhang, Jing Fang, Jie Li & Yanqing Lai

  2. Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Haitao Huang

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  1. Furong Qin
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  2. Kai Zhang
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  5. Jie Li
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  6. Yanqing Lai
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Correspondence to Yanqing Lai or Haitao Huang.

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Qin, F., Zhang, K., Zhang, Z. et al. Graphene/carbon aerogel for high areal capacity sulfur cathode of Li-S batteries. Ionics 25, 4615–4624 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-019-03046-w

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