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Vol. 12 (2020)

Rational Design of Porous N-Ti3C2 MXene@CNT Microspheres for High Cycling Stability in Li–S Battery

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-019-0341-6
Jianli Wang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
Zhao Zhang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
Xufeng Yan
Shunlong Zhang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
Zihao Wu
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
Zhihong Zhuang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China
Wei‑Qiang Han
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Wei‑Qiang Han

hanwq@zju.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 12 (2020), Article Number: 4

Abstract

Herein, N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres are successfully synthesized by the simple spray drying method. In the preparation process, HCl-treated melamine (HTM) is selected as the sources of carbon and nitrogen. It not only realizes in situ growth of CNTs on the surface of MXene nanosheets with the catalysis of Ni, but also introduces efficient N-doping in both MXene and CNTs. Within the microsphere, MXene nanosheets interconnect with CNTs to form porous and conductive network. In addition, N-doped MXene and CNTs can provide strong chemical immobilization for polysulfides and effectively entrap them within the porous microspheres. Above-mentioned merits enable N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres to be ideal sulfur host. When used in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery, the N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres/S cathode delivers initial specific capacity of 927 mAh g−1 at 1 C and retains high capacity of 775 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles with extremely low fading rate (FR) of 0.016% per cycle. Furthermore, the cathode still shows high cycling stability at high C-rate of 4 C (capacity of 647 mAh g−1 after 650 cycles, FR 0.027%) and high sulfur loading of 3 and 6 mg cm−2 for Li–S batteries.

Highlights
1 N-Ti3C2@CNT microspheres are successfully synthesized by the simple spray drying and one-step pyrolysis.
2 Within the microsphere, MXene nanosheets intimately interact with CNTs constructing porous and highly conductive network, which can provide strong immobilization for polysulfides.
3 N-Ti3C2@CNT microsphere/S cathode shows highly cycling stability in lithium-sulfur battery.


Keywords

Spray drying method N-Ti3C2 MXene@CNT microspheres Nitrogen-doping High cycling stability Lithium–sulfur battery
Wang, Jianli, Zhao Zhang, Xufeng Yan, Shunlong Zhang, Zihao Wu, Zhihong Zhuang, and Wei‑Qiang Han. 2019. “Rational Design of Porous N-Ti3C2 MXene@CNT Microspheres for High Cycling Stability in Li–S Battery”. Nano-Micro Letters 12 (December):4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-019-0341-6.
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