Sulfur/Co3O4 nanotube composite with high performances as cathode materials for lithium sulfur batteries

To improve the overall electrochemical performance of the sulfur cathode in Li/S batteries, a hollow Co3O4 nanotube with a channel measuring approximately 12.5 nm in diameter is synthesized and then impregnated with sulfur via a melt-diffusion strategy. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis and thermogravimetric analysis indicate that sulfur impregnated the channels of the hollow Co3O4 nanotube. Because the sulfur is mostly restricted to the Co3O4 nanotubes, a sulfur/Co3O4 cathode with 10 wt.% sulfur loading delivers an initial discharge capacity of 963.4 mAh g(-1), with much of the capacity contributed by Co3O4, and exhibits excellent reversibility with a capacity reservation of 80.8% after 100 cycles.