Important progress has been made in the study of lithium - sulfur batteries

Recently, the research group of professor xu maowen from the department of materials and energy of southwest university has made important progress in the design and development of high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. Related research results with "Double - ShelledNiO - NiCo2O4HeterostructureCarbonHollowNanocagesasAnEfficientSulfurHostforAdvancedLithium - SulfurBatteries" title, published in the international energy top journal "AdvancedEnergyMaterials (advanced energy materials), the journal impact factor of 16.72. The university is the first unit to complete this work. Hu linyu and dai chunlong, postgraduate students, are the co-first authors of this paper. Professor xu maowen is the corresponding author.

With the increasingly severe environmental problems and the rapid development of electronic and electric equipment, it is imperative to design and develop efficient energy storage equipment. Lithium sulfur battery is considered as one of the most promising energy storage systems in the next generation due to its high energy density, high theoretical capacity, abundant sulfur anode resources, low price and environmental friendliness. However, due to the poor conductivity of sulfur anode materials and their discharge products, lithium sulfide, volume effect in the charging and discharging process and "shuttle effect" and other problems, resulting in low utilization rate of sulfur in the battery, fast capacity attenuation, poor rate performance, seriously hindered the commercialization process of lithium sulfur battery.

In response to these problems, professor xu maowen's research group designed and synthesized a double-layer core-shell nio-nico2o4 heterojunction C hollow nano-cage as a carrier of sulfur, and for the first time applied in lithium-sulfur batteries. This hollow structure can not only provide sufficient space for sulfur storage, but also effectively deal with the volume effect in the process of sulfur charging and discharging. In addition, the nio-nico2o4 heterojunction nano-cage can effectively inhibit the dissolution and diffusion of polysulfide and promote the kinetic process in the conversion reaction by taking advantage of its unique composition, and alleviate the shuttling effect of the battery, fully reflecting the advantages of heterojunction. Based on this unique design, the material, as the positive electrode of lithium-sulfur battery, shows high specific capacity and good cycle stability.

The research work was funded by the national natural science foundation of China and the central university basic operating expenses project, and completed in cooperation with Dr. Yu Ming Chen of the Massachusetts institute of technology.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.