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A novel separator modified by titanium dioxide nanotubes/carbon nanotubes composite for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Ao Chen

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P. R. China

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Weifang Liu

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P. R. China

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Jun Yan

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P. R. China

E-mail Address: Yanjun@csu.edu.cn

Corresponding author.

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, and

Kaiyu Liu

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P. R. China

E-mail Address: kaiyuliu309@163.com

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S1793604719500164Cited by:8 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

The rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries were investigated as the most promising energy storage system. Although the composites of carbonaceous materials and metal oxides as the hosts of sulfur have been applied to improve the performance, their structures usually collapsed due to huge volumetric expansion of sulfur. Therefore, interlayer reported as a novel cell configuration could efficiently restrict the shuttle effect of polysulfide. Here, we design a unique separator modified by a functional “polysulfide trapping net” which consists of intertwined TiO₂ nanotubes and carbon nanotubes to improve the electrochemical performance of lithium sulfur batteries. Benefiting from the network structure, there are abundant ion pathways, meanwhile, TiO₂ nanotubes provide strong chemical and physical adsorption, carbon nanotubes serve as a conductive network which accelerates the transport of electrons. With the modified separator, the electrode exhibits an initial capacity of 936mAhg $^{- 1}$ at 1C rate and maintains a stable cycling performance over 200 cycles.

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