Synthesis of carbon nanoflake/sulfur arrays as cathode materials of lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract

It is of great importance to develop high-quality carbon/sulfur cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). Herein, we report a facile strategy to embed sulfur into interconnected carbon nanoflake matrix forming integrated electrode. Interlinked carbon nanoflakes have dual roles not only as a highly conductive matrix to host sulfur, but also act as blocking barriers to suppress the shuttle effect of intermediate polysulfides. In the light of these positive characteristics, the obtained carbon nanoflake/S cathode exhibit good LSBs performances with high capacities (1117[Formula: see text]mAh[Formula: see text]g[Formula: see text] at 0.2[Formula: see text]C, and 741[Formula: see text]mAh[Formula: see text]g[Formula: see text] at 0.6[Formula: see text]C) and good high-rate cycling performance. Our synthetic method provides a novel way to construct enhanced carbon/sulfur cathode for LSBs.