Flexible Carbon-fiber Supported Carbon-sulfur Electrode: Preparation, Physical Property and Electrochemical Performance

doi:10.15541/jim20180236

Abstract

Abstract:

Lithium sulfur battery has attracted extensive attention as highly promising next generation of rechargeable battery. However, lithium sulfur battery, especial the sulfur cathode, is still under experimental exploration, and the commercial carbon fiber felt is rarely reported to apply in the sulfur cathode. Herein, the flexible carbon-fiber- supported carbon-sulfur electrode was prepared, and its physical properties and electrochemical performance were characterized. The results showed that the interface resistance was reduced from 97.9 Ω to 22.6 Ω, due to porous three-dimensional network of the carbon fiber felt and micropore of the porous carbon which benefited energy density of the battery and conductivity of the sulfur cathode. Furthermore, the initial discharge capacity at 0.05C rate was 996.7 mAh/g and the discharge capacity at 2C rate after 140 cycles was 666.7 mAh/g when carbon fiber felt serves as current collector, while their counterparts with aluminum foil as the current collector were 772.9 and 471.6 mAh/g, respectively. Furthermore, the environmental-friend and low-cost binder LA132, super-P, and the ball-milling technique are beneficial to mass synthesis, suitable for the industrial production and the application of lithium sulfur battery.

Key words: lithium-sulfur battery, carbon-fiber supported, flexible, traditional aluminum foil

CLC Number:

TQ174

Ya-Dong LI, Wei-Ping LI, Qin WANG, Dao-Guang ZHENG, Jian-Xin WANG. Flexible Carbon-fiber Supported Carbon-sulfur Electrode: Preparation, Physical Property and Electrochemical Performance[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2019, 34(4): 373-378.

Figures/Tables 9

Fig. 1 XRD patterns of (a) sublimed sulfur, (b) porous carbon, (c) CS and (d) CSv

Fig. 2 Thermal weight (TG) test of porous carbon and carbon- sulfur composites

Fig. 3 N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms of (a) CSv and (b) porous carbon

Table 1 Texture properties of porous carbon

Sample	Surface area/(m²?g^-1)			Volume/(cm³?g^-1)		Average pore diameter/nm
Sample	S_BET	S_micro	S_external	V_total	V_micro	BJH
Porous carbon	1734.7242	1041.1364	693.5878	0.848649	0.472287	2.2930
CS_v	7.4587	1.3661	6.0926	0.008040	0.000438	7.1043

Fig. 4 SEM images of (a-c) CFF, (d) porous carbon, (e) CS, and (f-g) CSv, and EDX elemental maps of (h) carbon, (i) sulfur, and (j) the corresponding mass percentage in the area marked with a rectangle in (g)

Fig. 5 (a-c) Digital and (d-g) SEM images of (a-e) CFF/CSv and (f-g) Al/CSv cathodes

Fig. 6 Typical cyclic voltammograms of devices with CFF/CSv as cathode

Fig. 7 Electrochemical impedance plots of the batteries with Al/CSv and CFF/CSv as the current collectors with inset showing equivalent circuit

Fig. 8 Cycle performance of CFF/CSv and Al/CSv batteries at (a) 0.2C-5C rates and (b) 2C rate, (c) Cycle performance of CFF/CSv batteries with different S load at 0.2C rate, and (d) charge-discharge performance of the CFF/CSv batteries with different S load at 0.05C rate

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