Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Porous Structure of PPy/Porous-Graphene to Encapsulate Polysulfides for Lithium/Sulfur Batteries

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 8; no. 8; p. 606
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yongguang, Bakenov, Zhumabay, Tan, Taizhe, Huang, Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09.08.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Batteries; Carbon; Cathodes; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; Energy; Fabrication; Fourier transforms; Graphene; hierarchical 3D porous structure; Lithium; Lithium sulfur batteries; lithium/sulfur battery; Microscopy; Nanocomposites; Polymerization; Polypyrroles; Polysulfides; Spectrum analysis; Structural hierarchy; Sulfur; sulfur/polypyrrole/porous graphene composite; United States > US; China; Japan; sulfur/polypyrrole/porous graphene composite; hierarchical 3D porous structure; lithium/sulfur battery
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano8080606

Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of a three-dimensional (3D) polypyrrole-coated-porous graphene (PPy/PG) composite through in-situ polymerization of pyrrole monomer on PG surface. The PPy/PG displays a 3D hierarchical porous structure and the resulting PPy/PG hybrid serves as a conductive trap to lithium polysulfides enhancing the electrochemical performances. Owing to the superior conductivity and peculiar structure, a high initial discharge capacity of 1020 mAh g and the reversible capacity of 802 mAh g over 200 cycles are obtained for the S/PPy/PG cathode at 0.1 C, remaining the remarkable cyclic stability. In addition, the S/PPy/PG cathodes demonstrate an excellent rate performance exhibiting 477 mAh g at 2 C.