Tailoring Layered-Double-Hydroxide Nanostructures toward Long-Lifespan and Fast Kinetics Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries show a promising prospect as high-energy-storage devices for the ultrahigh capacity and low cost. Nevertheless, their practical usage is blocked by severe issues such as the serious lithium polysulfide (LiPS) shuttle, sluggish redox kinetics, and dendritic Li growth, resulting in fast cell capacity decay and short cycle life. Here, robust layered-double-hydroxide ultrathin nanosheet (LUN)-decorated Celgard separators have rationally been achieved via tailoring layered-double-hydroxide nanostructures. The binder-free LUN coating facilitates effective LiPS anchoring, fast LiPS redox conversion kinetics, as well as uniform metallic Li electrodeposition. Therefore, the Li symmetric cells reveal exceptionally long-lifespan stability over 3000 cycles at 10 mA cm(-2) with smooth, compact, and dendrite-free Li deposition. Importantly, the lithium-sulfur battery can cycle stably with an extremely low fading rate (similar to 0.029% per cycle) over similar to 1000 cycles at 1 C. This work provides a facile and large-scale strategy, paving the way for lithium-sulfur batteries toward practical application.

Automated summary

By utilizing layered-double-hydroxide ultrathin nanosheet (LUN)-decorated Celgard separators, this research successfully addresses issues such as lithium polysulfide shuttle and dendritic Li growth, significantly improving the cycle life and stability of lithium-sulfur batteries.