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Petal-like metal cobalt decorating carbon cloth as an effective host for flexible sulfur cathode

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Abstract

Recently, lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) have attracted much attention due to their high theoretical capacity, low cost, and abundant sulfur resources in nature. However, the low conductivity of sulfur and the “shuttle effect” of lithium polysulfides (LPSs) severely limited its commercial application. In this work, metal cobalt-decorated carbon cloth composites (Co/CC) were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method, and used as S host in LSBs. SEM and TEM images exhibited that countless petal-like metal cobalt nanoparticles were uniformly supported on carbon cloth fibers. The high electrical conductivity and special fiber structure of the carbon cloth are beneficial to the transmission of electrons and Li+ during electrochemical process. Meanwhile, the metal cobalt can adsorb the LPSs and accelerate its conversion. Therefore, compared with CC–S electrode, the Co/CC–S electrode presented better electrochemical performance, at a higher sulfur loading of 2.5 mg cm−2, and it delivered a reversible capacity of 249.0 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles at 1C with a low-capacity decay of 0.018% per cycle. Even at a high sulfur loading of 4.3 mg cm−2, the Co/CC–S electrode can present a reversible capacity of 273.3 mA h g−1 after 180 cycles. This work provided a new idea for the application of CC in flexible and wearable LSBs.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant Nos. ZR2018MEM012 and ZR2021QE175), Qilu University of Technology International Cooperation Fund (QLUTGJHZ2018025), and Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) Youth Doctoral Cooperation Fund Project (2019BSHZ0021).

Funding

Funding was provided by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant Nos. ZR2018MEM012, ZR2021QE175), Qilu University of Technology International Cooperation Fund (Grant No.: QLUTGJHZ2018025), and Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) Youth Doctoral Cooperation Fund Project (2019BSHZ0021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (ShandongAcademy of Sciences), Jinan, 250353, People’s Republic of China

    Hongling Guo, Han Su, Mingzhi Yang, Weiliang Liu & Manman Ren

  2. SUSTech Engineering Innovation Center, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Yuanhao Wang

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  1. Hongling Guo
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  2. Han Su
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Contributions

HG did experimental work and wrote the paper. HS did experimental work. MY did SEM and TEM tests. WL did XRD and Raman tests. MR performed writing and revising of the manuscript. YW provided the technical support.

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Correspondence to Manman Ren or Yuanhao Wang.

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Guo, H., Su, H., Yang, M. et al. Petal-like metal cobalt decorating carbon cloth as an effective host for flexible sulfur cathode. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 23250–23257 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09089-6

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