B4C nanoskeleton enabled, flexible lithium-sulfur batteries

Wise selection of host materials and judicious design of electrodes are critical for constructing high-performance energy storage devices. Here we report an unusual cathode configuration for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries employing B4C nanowires (BC-NWs) as a skeleton, porous activated cotton textile (ACT) as a flexible carbon scaffold, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as a self-adaptive protective shell. This BC-NWs@ACT/S/rGO cathode achieved superlative sulfur confinement and electrochemical performance with excellent cycling stability (over 1000 cycles at a high current density of 1.5 mA/cm(2)), an ultralow capacity decay rate (0.056% per cycle) and remarkable capacities at a wide range of discharging rate from 0.1 to 1.5 mA/cm(2), demonstrating its potential to achieve high capacity and long cycle life simultaneously in Li-S batteries.