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Vol. 12 (2020)

Curtailing Carbon Usage with Addition of Functionalized NiFe2O4 Quantum Dots: Toward More Practical S Cathodes for Li–S Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00484-4
Ning Li
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Ting Meng
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Lai Ma
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Han Zhang
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
JiaJia Yao
School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Maowen Xu
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Chang Ming Li
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Jian Jiang
School of Materials and Energy, and Chongqing Key Lab for Advanced Materials and Clean Energies of Technologies, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Jian Jiang

jjiang@swu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 12 (2020), Article Number: 145

Abstract

Smart combination of manifold carbonaceous materials with admirable functionalities (like full of pores/functional groups, high specific surface area) is still a mainstream/preferential way to address knotty issues of polysulfides dissolution/shuttling and poor electrical conductivity for S-based cathodes. However, extensive use of conductive carbon fillers in cell designs/technology would induce electrolytic overconsumption and thereby shelve high-energy-density promise of Li–S cells. To cut down carbon usage, we propose the incorporation of multi-functionalized NiFe2O4 quantum dots (QDs) as affordable additive substitutes. The total carbon content can be greatly curtailed from 26% (in traditional S/C cathodes) to a low/commercial mass ratio (~ 5%). Particularly, note that NiFe2O4 QDs additives own superb chemisorption interactions with soluble Li2Sn molecules and proper catalytic features facilitating polysulfide phase conversions and can also strengthen charge-transfer capability/redox kinetics of overall cathode systems. Benefiting from these intrinsic properties, such hybrid cathodes demonstrate prominent rate behaviors (decent capacity retention with ~ 526 mAh g−1 even at 5 A g−1) and stable cyclic performance in LiNO3-free electrolytes (only ~ 0.08% capacity decay per cycle in 500 cycles at 0.2 A g−1). This work may arouse tremendous research interest in seeking other alternative QDs and offer an economical/more applicable methodology to construct low-carbon-content electrodes for practical usage.


Highlights


1 Using NiFe2O4 quantum dots (QDs) as additive substitutes, the total carbon content in cathodes is sharply reduced from original ~ 26% (in traditional S/C cathodes) to a low mass ratio of ~ 5%.
2 The as-built S@CB ⊆ QDs demonstrate more appropriate tap density (~1.32 g cm−3) and specific surface area (~19.9 m2 g−1) values than S@CB counterparts.
3 NiFe2O4 QDs additives possess superb chemisorption interactions with Li2Sn molecules and proper charge-transfer/catalytic features to strengthen redox kinetics of overall cathode systems.

Keywords

Carbon usage reduction NiFe2O4 quantum dots Additive substitute Practical S cathode Li–S cells
Li, Ning, Ting Meng, Lai Ma, Han Zhang, JiaJia Yao, Maowen Xu, Chang Ming Li, and Jian Jiang. 2020. “Curtailing Carbon Usage With Addition of Functionalized NiFe2O4 Quantum Dots: Toward More Practical S Cathodes for Li–S Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 12 (July):145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00484-4.
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