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Carbon fiber-incorporated sulfur/carbon ternary cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries with enhanced performance

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Abstract

Smart construction of advanced sulfur cathodes is indispensable for the development of high performance lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. Hence, we report a novel modified sulfur cathode using conductive carbon black as carrier to load sulfur and vapor grown carbon fiber as bridges to connect sulfur/carbon black clusters. The carbon fiber-incorporated sulfur/carbon ternary electrode exhibits superior electrochemical performance with an initial discharge capacity of 1112 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C (1 C = 1675 mAh g−1) and 758 mAh g−1 at 1 C. And it maintains much higher Coulombic efficiency and capacity retention after 200 cycles than those of the sulfur/carbon binary electrode. Moreover, rate capability of the ternary electrode is enhanced greatly. The improved electrochemical performance is attributed to the addition of carbon fiber, which provides convenient paths for rapid transfer of electrons during the redox reaction of sulfur.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51502263) and the Program for Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China (IRT13037).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Xuqing Zhang, Dong Xie, Donghuang Wang, Tao Yang, Xiuli Wang, Xinhui Xia, Changdong Gu & Jiangping Tu

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  1. Xuqing Zhang
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  2. Dong Xie
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  3. Donghuang Wang
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Correspondence to Jiangping Tu.

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Zhang, X., Xie, D., Wang, D. et al. Carbon fiber-incorporated sulfur/carbon ternary cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries with enhanced performance. J Solid State Electrochem 21, 1203–1210 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3460-8

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