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Catalyzing polysulfide conversion by g-C3N4 in a graphene network for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries

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Abstract

The practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries with a high energy density has been plagued by the poor cycling stability of the sulfur cathode, which is a result of the insulating nature of sulfur and the dissolution of polysulfides. Much work has been done to construct nanostructured or doped carbon as a porous or polar host for promising sulfur cathodes, although restricting the polysulfide shuttle effect by improving the redox reaction kinetics is more attractive. Herein, we present a well-designed strategy by introducing graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) into a three-dimensional hierarchical porous graphene assembly to achieve a synergistic combination of confinement and catalyzation of polysulfides. The porous g-C3N4 nanosheets in situ formed inside the graphene network afford a highly accessible surface to catalyze the transformation of polysulfides, and the hierarchical porous graphene-assembled carbon can function as a conductive network and provide appropriate space for g-C3N4 catalysis in the sulfur cathode. Thus, this hybrid can effectively improve sulfur utilization and block the dissolution of polysulfides, achieving excellent cycling performance for sulfur cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB932400). Q.-H. Y. is grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51525204) and Y. T. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51702229).

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Author notes

  1. Meng Wang and Qinghua Liang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoyang Group, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Meng Wang, Junwei Han, Ying Tao, Donghai Liu & Quan-Hong Yang

  2. Engineering Laboratory for Functionalized Carbon Materials, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Graphene-based Materials, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Qinghua Liang & Wei Lv

  3. School of Marine Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Chen Zhang

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  1. Meng Wang
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  2. Qinghua Liang
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  4. Ying Tao
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Correspondence to Ying Tao or Quan-Hong Yang.

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Wang, M., Liang, Q., Han, J. et al. Catalyzing polysulfide conversion by g-C3N4 in a graphene network for long-life lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Res. 11, 3480–3489 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2023-y

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