A Facile Bottom-Up Approach to Construct Hybrid Flexible Cathode Scaffold for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Ghosh, Arnab and Manjunatha, Revanasiddappa and Kumar, Rajat and Mitra, Sagar (2016) A Facile Bottom-Up Approach to Construct Hybrid Flexible Cathode Scaffold for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries. In: ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, 8 (49). pp. 33775-33785.

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Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries mostly suffer from the low utilization of sulfur, poor cycle life, and low rate performances. The prime factors that affect the performance are enormous volume change of the electrode, soluble intermediate product formation, poor electronic and ionic conductivity of S, and end discharge products (i.e., Li2S2 and Li2S). The attractive way to mitigate these challenges underlying in the fabrication of a sulfur nanocomposite electrode consisting of different nanoparticles with distinct properties of lithium storage capability, mechanical reinforcement, and ionic as well as electronic conductivity leading to a mechanically robust and mixed conductive (ionic and electronic conductive) sulfur electrode. Herein, we report a novel bottom-up approach to synthesize a unique freestanding, flexible cathode scaffold made of porous reduced graphene oxide, nanosized sulfur, and Mn3O4 nanoparticles, and all are three-dimensionally interconnected to each other by hybrid polyaniline/sodium alginate (PANI-SA) matrix to serve individual purposes. A capacity of 1098 mAh g(-1) is achieved against lithium after 200 cycles at a current rate of 2 A g-1 with 97.6% of initial capacity at a same current rate, suggesting the extreme stability and cycling performance of such electrode. Interestingly, with the higher current density of 5 A g(-1), the composite electrode exhibited an initial capacity of 1015 mA h g(-1) and retained 71% of the original capacity after 500 cycles. The in situ Raman study confirms the polysulfide absorption capability of Mn3O4. This work provides a new strategy to design a mechanically robust, mixed conductive nanocomposite electrode for high-performance lithium sulfur batteries and a strategy that can be used to develop flexible large power storage devices.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to theAMER CHEMICAL SOC, 1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Instrumentation Appiled Physics
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2017 04:21
Last Modified:	30 Jan 2017 04:21
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/55962

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