A metal organic foam-derived multi-layered and porous copper sulfide scaffold as sulfur host with multiple shields for preventing shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur batteries

• Published in: Electrochimica acta Vol. 356; p. 136853
• Main Authors: Long, Jiawei, Zhang, Haikuo, Ren, Jiahao, Li, Jinjin, Zhu, Mengfei, Han, Tianli, Sun, Bai, Zhu, Shuguang, Zhang, Huigang, Liu, Jinyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adsorption; Charge transfer; Composite materials; Copper sulfides; Density functional theory; Electrochemical analysis; Foamed metals; Layered structure; Lithium sulfur batteries; Metal organic foams; Multilayers; Polysulfides; Rate-performance; Scaffolds; Secondary battery; Shields; Shuttle effect; Metal organic foams; Secondary battery; Rate-performance; Layered structure; Shuttle effect
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136853

Huge volume-change of sulfur and the shuttle effect of polysulfides during charge-discharge severely restrict the electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Herein, we present a novel three-dimensional (3D) multi-layered and porous CuS scaffold derived from metal organic foams (MOFs) as high-performance sulfur host for Li-S batteries. The CuS/S composites enable an optimal environment for accommodating the volume-change of sulfur, and the multiple CuS layers form several shields to prevent the loss of sulfur and polysulfides, efficiently suppressing the shuttle effect. The batteries based on the CuS/S composites exhibit a stable capacity of 750 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 0.1 C, and a well-recoverable rate-performance after being tested for three rounds repeatedly. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm the novel sulfur host exhibits a strong adsorption ability to polysulfides with large adsorption energies and charge transfers towards Li2S4, Li2S6, and Li2S8. [Display omitted]