Electrocatalysis on Separator Modified by Molybdenum Trioxide Nanobelts for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Sumair Imtiaz, Zahid Ali Zafar, Rameez Razaq, Dan Sun, Ying Xin, Qian Li, Zhaoliang Zhang*, Lei Zheng, Yunhui Huang, James A. Anderson* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) have been regarded as the supreme feasible future generation energy storage system for high-energy applications due to the exceptional-specific energy density of 2600 Wh kg−1 and theoretical-specific capacity of 1675 mAh g−1. Nevertheless, some key challenges which are linked with polysulfide shuttling and sluggish kinetics of polysulfide conversion are the main obstacles in the high electrochemical performance of LSBs. Here, a molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) nanobelt catalytic layer is fabricated on the separator to solve these issues. The MoO3 layer shows strong chemical interaction with polysulfides by successfully blocking the polysulfides on the separator from shuttling and significantly accelerates the redox reaction of polysulfide conversion. Furthermore, the randomly arranged layers of MoO3 nanobelts possess enough porous networks that provide effective space for electrolyte infiltration and facile pathway for fast ion transportation. The resultant LSBs exhibit a very high initial capacity of 1377 mAh g−1. After 200 cycles at 0.5 C, the capacity is 684.4 mAh g−1 with the fading rate of only 0.251% per cycle. Additionally, the MoO3 modification provides good surface protection of lithium anode and depresses the lithium anode degradation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1800243
JournalAdvanced Materials Interfaces
Volume5
Issue number15
Early online date7 Jun 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information
National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Number: 21477046
Key Technology R&D Program of Shandong Province. Grant Number: 2016ZDJS11A03

Keywords

  • electrocatalysis
  • lithium-sulfur battery
  • molybdenum trioxide
  • polysulfide shuttle

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