AI Chat Paper
Note: Please note that the following content is generated by AMiner AI. SciOpen does not take any responsibility related to this content.
{{lang === 'zh_CN' ? '文章概述' : 'Summary'}}
{{lang === 'en_US' ? '中' : 'Eng'}}
Chat more with AI
Powered by AMiner. Clicking this button will take you away from SciOpen.
Home Nano Research Article
Article Link
Cite
EndNote(RIS) BibTeX
Collect
Submit Manuscript
Show Outline
Outline
Show full outline
Hide outline
Outline
Show full outline
Hide outline
Research Article

Hollow-in-hollow carbon spheres with hollow foam-like cores for lithium–sulfur batteries

Jun Zang1,2, Taihua An2, Yajie Dong1, Xiaoliang Fang1( ), Mingsen Zheng2, Quanfeng Dong2, Nanfeng Zheng2( )
Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and TechnologyXiamen UniversityXiamen361005China
State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid SurfacesCollaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materialsand Department of ChemistryCollege of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringXiamen UniversityXiamen361005China
Show Author Information

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries have attracted increasing attention because of their high theoretical capacity. Using sulfur/carbon composites as the cathode materials has been demonstrated as an effective strategy to optimize sulfur utilization and enhance cycle stability as well. In this work, hollow-in-hollow carbon spheres with hollow foam-like cores (HCSF@C) are prepared to improve both capability and cycling stability of lithium–sulfur batteries. With high surface area and large pore volumes, the loading of sulfur in HCSF@C reaches up to 70 wt.%. In the resulting S/HCSF@C composites, the outer carbon shell serves as an effective protection layer to trap the soluble polysulfide intermediates derived from the inner component. Consequently, the S/HCSF@C cathode retains a high capacity of 780 mAh/g after 300 cycles at a high charge/discharge rate of 1 A/g.

Keywords

hollow spheresporous carbonsulfur/carbon cathodelithium–sulfur batteries

Electronic Supplementary Material

Download File(s)
12274_2015_773_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (1.9 MB)

References

1

Bruce, P. G.; Freunberger, S. A.; Hardwick, L. J.; Tarascon, J. M. Li-O2 and Li-S batteries with high energy storage. Nat. Mater. 2012, 11, 19-29.
Crossref Google Scholar
2

Evers, S.; Nazar, L. F. New approaches for high energy density lithium-sulfur battery cathodes. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 46, 1135-1143.
Crossref Google Scholar
3

Manthiram, A.; Fu, Y. Z.; Su, Y. S. Challenges and prospects of lithium-sulfur batteries. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 46, 1125-1134.
Crossref Google Scholar
4

Yin, Y. X.; Xin, S.; Guo, Y. G.; Wan, L. J. Lithium-sulfur batteries: Electrochemistry, materials, and prospects. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 13186-13200.
Crossref Google Scholar
5

Yang, Y.; Zheng, G. Y.; Cui, Y. Nanostructured sulfur cathodes. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2013, 42, 3018-3032.
Crossref Google Scholar
6

Armstrong, M. J.; O'Dwyer, C.; Macklin, W. J.; Holmes, J. D. Evaluating the performance of nanostructured materials as lithium-ion battery electrodes. Nano Res. 2014, 7, 1-62.
Google Scholar
7

Ji, X. L.; Lee, K. T.; Nazar, L. F. A highly ordered nanostructured carbon-sulphur cathode for lithium-sulphur batteries. Nat. Mater. 2009, 8, 500-506.
Crossref Google Scholar
8

Ji, L. W.; Rao, M. M.; Zheng, H. M.; Zhang, L.; Li, Y. C.; Duan, W. H.; Guo, J. H.; Cairns, E. J.; Zhang, Y. G. Graphene oxide as a sulfur immobilizer in high performance lithium/ sulfur cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 18522-18525.
Crossref Google Scholar
9

Wang, Z. Y.; Dong, Y. F.; Li, H. J.; Zhao, Z. B.; Wu, H. B.; Hao, C.; Liu, S. H.; Qiu, J. S.; Lou, X. W. Enhancing lithium-sulphur battery performance by strongly binding the discharge products on amino-functionalized reduced graphene oxide. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 5002.
Crossref Google Scholar
10

Xiao, L. F.; Cao, Y. L.; Xiao, J.; Schwenzer, B.; Engelhard, M. H.; Saraf, L. V.; Nie, Z. M.; Exarhos, G. J.; Liu, J. A soft approach to encapsulate sulfur: Polyaniline nanotubes for lithium-sulfur batteries with long cycle life. Adv. Mater. 2012, 24, 1176-1181.
Crossref Google Scholar
11

Yang, Y.; Yu, G. H.; Cha, J. J.; Wu, H.; Vosgueritchian, M.; Yao, Y.; Bao, Z. N.; Cui, Y. Improving the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries by conductive polymer coating. ACS Nano 2011, 5, 9187-9193.
Crossref Google Scholar
12

Li, W. Y.; Zhang, Q. F.; Zheng, G.; Seh, Z. W.; Yao, H. B.; Cui, Y. Understanding the role of different conductive polymers in improving the nanostructured sulfur cathode performance. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 5534-5540.
Crossref Google Scholar
13

Qiu, Y. C.; Li, W. F.; Li, G. Z.; Hou, Y.; Zhou, L. S.; Li, H. F.; Liu, M. N.; Ye, F. M.; Yang, X. W.; Zhang, Y. G. Polyaniline-modified cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-graphene oxide-sulfur nanocomposites with enhanced performance for lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Res. 2014, 7, 1355-1363.
Crossref Google Scholar
14

Seh, Z. W.; Li, W.; Cha, J. J.; Zheng, G. Y.; Yang, Y.; McDowell, M. T.; Hsu, P. C.; Cui, Y. Sulphur-TiO2 yolk-shell nanoarchitecture with internal void space for long-cycle lithium-sulphur batteries. Nat. Commun. 2013, 4, 1331.
Crossref Google Scholar
15

Zhou, W. D.; Yu, Y. C.; Chen, H.; DiSalvo, F. J.; Abruna, H. D. Yolk-shell structure of polyaniline-coated sulfur for lithium-sulfur batteries. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 16736-16743.
Crossref Google Scholar
16

Su, Y. S.; Manthiram, A. Lithium-sulphur batteries with a microporous carbon paper as a bifunctional interlayer. Nat. Commun. 2012, 3, 1166.
Crossref Google Scholar
17

Zhang, S. S. Role of LiNO3 in rechargeable lithium/sulfur battery. Electrochim. Acta 2012, 70, 344-348.
Crossref Google Scholar
18

Schuster, J.; He, G.; Mandlmeier, B.; Yim, T.; Lee, K. T.; Bein, T.; Nazar, L. F. Spherical ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles with high porosity for lithium-sulfur batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 3591-3595.
Crossref Google Scholar
19

Li, Z.; Yuan, L. X.; Yi, Z. Q.; Sun, Y. M.; Liu, Y.; Jiang, Y.; Shen, Y.; Xin, Y.; Zhang, Z. L.; Huang, Y. H. Insight into the electrode mechanism in lithium-sulfur batteries with ordered microporous carbon confined sulfur as the cathode. Adv. Energy Mater. 2014, 4, 1301473.
Crossref Google Scholar
20

Wu, H. B.; Wei, S. Y.; Zhang, L.; Xu, R.; Hng, H. H.; Lou, X. W. Embedding sulfur in MOF-derived microporous carbon polyhedrons for lithium-sulfur batteries. Chem. —Eur. J. 2013, 19, 10804-10808.
Crossref Google Scholar
21

Jung, D. S.; Hwang, T. H.; Lee, J. H.; Koo, H. Y.; Shakoor, R. A.; Kahraman, R.; Jo, Y. N.; Park, M. S.; Choi, J. W. Hierarchical porous carbon by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis yields stable cycling in lithium-sulfur battery. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 4418-4425.
Crossref Google Scholar
22

Li, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Yuan, L. X.; Yi, Z. Q.; Wu, C.; Liu, Y.; Strasser, P.; Huang, Y. H. A highly ordered meso@microporous carbon-supported sulfur@smaller sulfur core-shell structured cathode for Li-S batteries. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 9295-9303.
Crossref Google Scholar
23

Guo, J. Z.; Xu, Y. H.; Wang, C. S. Sulfur-impregnated disordered carbon nanotubes cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 4288-4294.
Crossref Google Scholar
24

Zheng, G. Y.; Yang, Y.; Cha, J. J.; Hong, S. S.; Cui, Y. Hollow carbon nanofiber-encapsulated sulfur cathodes for high specific capacity rechargeable lithium batteries. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 4462-4467.
Crossref Google Scholar
25

Zhou, G. M.; Yin, L. C.; Wang, D. W.; Li, L.; Pei, S. F.; Gentle, I. R.; Li, F.; Cheng, H. M. Fibrous hybrid of graphene and sulfur nanocrystals for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 5367-5375.
Crossref Google Scholar
26

Yang, X.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, F.; Huang, Y.; Chen, Y. S. Sulfur-infiltrated graphene-based layered porous carbon cathodes for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 5208-5215.
Crossref Google Scholar
27

Zhou, G. M.; Wang, D. W.; Li, F.; Hou, P. X.; Yin, L. C.; Liu, C.; Lu, G. Q.; Gentle, I. R.; Cheng, H. M. A flexible nanostructured sulphur-carbon nanotube cathode with high rate performance for Li-S batteries. Energy Environ. Sci. 2012, 5, 8901-8906.
Crossref Google Scholar
28

Yao, H. B.; Zheng, G. Y.; Li, W. Y.; McDowell, M. T.; Seh, Z. W.; Liu, N. A.; Lu, Z. D.; Cui, Y. Crab shells as sustainable templates from nature for nanostructured battery electrodes. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 3385-3390.
Crossref Google Scholar
29

Chen, X. A.; Xiao, Z. B.; Ning, X. T.; Liu, Z.; Yang, Z.; Zou, C.; Wang, S.; Chen, X. H.; Chen, Y.; Huang, S. M. Sulfur-impregnated, sandwich-type, hybrid carbon nanosheets with hierarchical porous structure for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. Adv. Energy Mater. 2014, 4, 1301988.
Crossref Google Scholar
30

Li, Y. Y.; Li, Z. S.; Zhang, Q. W.; Shen, P. K. Sulfur-infiltrated three-dimensional graphene-like material with hierarchical pores for highly stable lithium-sulfur batteries. J. Mater. Chem. A 2014, 2, 4528-4533.
Crossref Google Scholar
31

Xin, S.; Gu, L.; Zhao, N. H.; Yin, Y. X.; Zhou, L. J.; Guo, Y. G.; Wan, L. J. Smaller sulfur molecules promise better lithium-sulfur batteries. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 18510-18513.
Crossref Google Scholar
32

Sun, L.; Li, M. Y.; Jiang, Y.; Kong, W. B.; Jiang, K. L.; Wang, J. P.; Fan, S. S. Sulfur nanocrystals confined in carbon nanotube network as a binder-free electrode for high-performance lithium sulfur batteries. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 4044-4049.
Crossref Google Scholar
33

Jayaprakash, N.; Shen, J.; Moganty, S. S.; Corona, A.; Archer, L. A. Porous hollow carbon@sulfur composites for high-power lithium-sulfur batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 5904-5908.
Crossref Google Scholar
34

Zhang, C. F.; Wu, H. B.; Yuan, C. Z.; Guo, Z. P.; Lou, X. W. Confining sulfur in double-shelled hollow carbon spheres for lithium-sulfur batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51 9592 -9595.
Crossref Google Scholar
35

Zhang, K.; Zhao, Q.; Tao, Z. L.; Chen, J. Composite of sulfur impregnated in porous hollow carbon spheres as the cathode of Li-S batteries with high performance. Nano Res. 2013, 6, 38-46.
Crossref Google Scholar
36

He, G.; Evers, S.; Liang, X.; Cuisinier, M.; Garsuch, A.; Nazar, L. F. Tailoring porosity in carbon nanospheres for lithium-sulfur battery cathodes. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 10920-10930.
Crossref Google Scholar
37

Zhao, M. Q.; Zhang, Q.; Huang, J. Q.; Tian, G. L.; Nie, J. Q.; Peng, H. J.; Wei, F. Unstacked double-layer templated graphene for high-rate lithium-sulphur batteries. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 3410.
Crossref Google Scholar
38

Zhou, W. D.; Xiao, X. C.; Cai, M.; Yang, L. Polydopamine-coated, nitrogen-doped, hollow carbon-sulfur double-layered core-shell structure for improving lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 5250-5256.
Crossref Google Scholar
39

Liu, J.; Qiao, S. Z.; Chen, J. S.; Lou, X. W.; Xing, X. R.; Lu, G. Q. Yolk/shell nanoparticles: New platforms for nanoreactors, drug delivery and lithium-ion batteries. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 12578-12591.
Crossref Google Scholar
40

Fang, X. L.; Zhao, X. J.; Fang, W. J.; Chen, C.; Zheng, N. F. Self-templating synthesis of hollow mesoporous silica and their applications in catalysis and drug delivery. Nanoscale 2013, 5, 2205-2218.
Crossref Google Scholar
41

Wang, J. Y.; Yang, N. L.; Tang, H. J.; Dong, Z. H.; Jin, Q.; Yang, M.; Kisailus, D.; Zhao, H. J.; Tang, Z. Y.; Wang, D. Accurate control of multishelled Co3O4 hollow microspheres as high-performance anode materials in lithium-ion batteries. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 6417-6420.
Crossref Google Scholar
42

Zhang, G. Q.; Lou, X. W. General synthesis of multi-shelled mixed metal oxide hollow spheres with superior lithium storage properties. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 9041-9044.
Crossref Google Scholar
43

Fang, X. L.; Liu, S. J.; Zang, J.; Xu, C. F.; Zheng, M. S.; Dong, Q. F.; Sun, D. H.; Zheng, N. F. Precisely controlled resorcinol-formaldehyde resin coating for fabricating core-shell, hollow, and yolk-shell carbon nanostructures. Nanoscale 2013, 5, 6908-6916.
Crossref Google Scholar
44

Fang, X. L.; Zang, J.; Wang, X. L.; Zheng, M. S.; Zheng, N. F. A multiple coating route to hollow carbon spheres with foam-like shells and their applications in supercapacitor and confined catalysis. J. Mater. Chem. A 2014, 2, 6191-6197.
Crossref Google Scholar
45

Zhao, Y.; Wu, W. L.; Li, J. X.; Xu, Z. C.; Guan, L. H. Encapsulating MWNTs into hollow porous carbon nanotubes: A tube-in-tube carbon nanostructure for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 5113-5118.
Crossref Google Scholar
46

Lu, S. T.; Cheng, Y. W.; Wu, X. H.; Liu, J. Significantly improved long-cycle stability in high-rate Li-S batteries enabled by coaxial graphene wrapping over sulfur-coated carbon nanofibers. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 2485-2489.
Crossref Google Scholar
47

Wang, L.; Wang, D.; Zhang, F. X.; Jin, J. Interface chemistry guided long-cycle-life Li-S battery. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 4206-4211.
Crossref Google Scholar
48

Wang, H. L.; Yang, Y. Y.; Liang, Y.; Robinson, J. T.; Li, Y. G.; Jackson, A.; Cui, Y.; Dai, H. J. Graphene-wrapped sulfur particles as a rechargeable lithium-sulfur battery cathode material with high capacity and cycling stability. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 2644-2647.
Crossref Google Scholar
49

Zheng, J. M.; Tian, J.; Wu, D. X.; Gu, M.; Xu, W.; Wang, C. M.; Gao, F.; Engelhard, M. H.; Zhang, J. G.; Liu, J. et al. Lewis acid-base interactions between polysulfides and metal organic framework in lithium sulfur batteries. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 2345-2352.
Crossref Google Scholar
50

Zhou, J. W.; Li, R.; Fan, X. X.; Chen, Y. F.; Han, R. D.; Li, W.; Zheng, J.; Wang, B.; Li, X. G. Rational design of a metal-organic framework host for sulfur storage in fast, long-cycle Li-S batteries. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 2715-2724.
Crossref Google Scholar
Nano Research
Volume 8 Issue 8,
August 2015
Pages 2663-2675
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-015-0773-3
Cite this article:
Zang J, An T, Dong Y, et al. Hollow-in-hollow carbon spheres with hollow foam-like cores for lithium–sulfur batteries. Nano Research, 2015, 8(8): 2663-2675. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0773-3

693

Views

122

Crossref

N/A

Web of Science

124

Scopus

15

CSCD

Altmetrics
Received: 02 February 2015
Revised: 22 March 2015
Accepted: 24 March 2015
Published: 29 August 2015
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Return