Novel construction of nanostructured carbon materials as sulfur hosts for advanced lithium‐sulfur batteries

• Published in: International journal of energy research Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 70 - 91
• Main Authors: Bai, Yilu, Li, Ting, Wang, Yong, Jin, Hong, Wang, Keliang, Xu, Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2020
• Subjects: advanced carbon hosts; Batteries; Carbon; Carbon nanotubes; Chemical bonds; Electrochemistry; Energy storage; Flux density; Graphene; Hosts; Lithium; Lithium sulfur batteries; Morphology; nanostructured carbon; Nanostructured materials; Nanotechnology; Nanotubes; Organic chemistry; Storage batteries; Storage systems; structural design; Sulfur; Sulphur
• ISSN: 0363-907X; 1099-114X
• DOI: 10.1002/er.4911

Summary Lithium‐sulfur batteries (LSBs) are among the most promising next generation electrochemical energy storage systems due to their ultrahigh energy density, which has attracted enormous attentions. Nevertheless, the development and application of LSBs are still subject to some major technical obstacles such as the insulating nature of sulfur, the shuttle effect of intermediate polysulfides, and the drastic volume expansion. To overcome these challenges, various strategies have been employed to promote the performance of LSBs. This review focuses on summarizing the major development of novel nanostructured carbon hosts for advanced LSBs. The carbon nanotubes, graphene, and carbon spheres are introduced to improve our understanding of the morphology effects on LSBs. The heterogeneous atom‐doping, unique hollow structures are summarized to investigate the chemical bonding effects during the charge/discharge process. The organic framework derived carbon structures are discussed to inspire us to find novel routes to enhance the performance of LSBs. Finally, the conclusions and prospects of nanostructured carbon in LSBs are proposed, while the challenges in the further development of LSBs are also discussed. In this review, the recent achievements on designing and fabricating of novel nanostructured carbon materials for advanced Lithium‐Sulfur batteries are summarized, the beneficial role of various unique nanostructures in battery system is particularly focused. The individual merit of diverse nanostructured carbon is analyzed form critical factors among porosity, dimensionality, chemical doping, hierarchical construction. Organic framework derived structural carbon materials which is relative originality in recent years has also be presented.