Cross-stacked carbon nanotube film as an additional built-in current collector and adsorption layer for high-performance lithium sulfur batteries

Li Sun, Weibang Kong, Mengya Li, Hengcai Wu, Kaili Jiang, Qunqing Li, Yihe Zhang, Jiaping Wang, Shoushan Fan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cross-stacked carbon nanotube (CNT) film is proposed as an additional built-in current collector and adsorption layer in sulfur cathodes for advanced lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries. On one hand, the CNT film with high conductivity, microstructural rough surface, high flexibility and mechanical durability retains stable and direct electronic contact with the sulfur cathode materials, therefore decreasing internal resistivity and suppressing polarization of the cathode. On the other hand, the highly porous structure and the high surface area of the CNT film provide abundant adsorption points to support and confine sulfur cathode materials, alleviate their aggregation and promote high sulfur utilization. Moreover, the lightweight and compact structure of the CNT film adds no extra weight or volume to the sulfur cathode, benefitting the improvement of energy densities. Based on these characteristics, the sulfur cathode with a 100-layer cross-stacked CNT film presents excellent rate performances with capacities of 986, 922 and 874 mAh g-1 at cycling rates of 0.2C, 0.5C and 1C for sulfur loading of 60 wt%, corresponding to an improvement of 52%, 109% and 146% compared to that without a CNT film. Promising cycling performances are also demonstrated, offering great potential for scaled-up production of sulfur cathodes for Li-S batteries.

Original languageEnglish
Article number075401
JournalNanotechnology
Volume27
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 18 2016
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB932301), the NSFC (51102146 and 51472141) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2652015425).

Keywords

  • CNT film
  • Li-S battery
  • adsorption layer
  • current collector

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