Rational design of sulphur host materials for Li-S batteries: correlating lithium polysulphide adsorptivity and self-discharge capacity loss.

A versatile, cost-effective electrochemical analysis strategy is described that determines the specific S(n)(2-) adsorptivity of materials, and allows prediction of the long-term performance of sulphur composite electrodes in Li-S cells. Measurement of nine different materials with varying surface area, and hydrophobicity using this protocol determined optimum properties for capacity stabilization.

Stable cycling of a scalable graphene-encapsulated nanocomposite for lithium-sulfur batteries.

We report the synthesis of a low-cost carbon/sulfur nanocomposite using Ketjen black (KBC) as the carbon framework, encapsulated by thin graphene sheets using a simple process that relies on binding a functionalized KBC/S nanoparticle surface with graphene oxide (GO), which is reduced in situ. A slight excess of GO is employed to create a second layer of graphene wrapping around the KBC/S. This g-KBC/S sulfur cathode exhibits excellent cyclability over 200 cycles where the average stabilized fade rate is only 0.026% or 1.1 mAh g(-1) per cycle. This excellent performance is primarily attributed to the wrapped, internally porous architecture. The large pore volume, small pore diameter, and uniform nanoparticle size of the mesoporous KBC array provides an ideal frame for the fabrication of a homogeneous C/S composite, whereas the graphene/GO sheets serve as an external chemical and physical barrier that inhibits polysulfide diffusion.