Sulfur-impregnated disordered SnO2/carbon aerogel core-shell microspheres cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries

It is extremely critical to prevent the loss of sulfur active material and shuttle reaction of polysulfide through into electrolyte in high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. In this paper, we reported sulfur-impregnated SnO2/carbon aerogel core-shell microspheres as a polysulfide adsorbent for lithium-sulfur battery. The core of carbon aerogel microspheres is able to accommodate increasing volume and the shell of SnO2 works as high-efficiency polysulfide trap for the flexible structure of SnO2/carbon aerogel core-shell microspheres at full capacity. The obtained core-shell cathodes demonstrate significantly improved electrochemical performance (949 mAh g(-1) at 0.1C). The capacities are remain 785 mAh g(-1) over 80 cycles and high capacity retention of 76.9%. This positive result is owing to unique structure of core-shell microspheres with fast ion/electron transfer path and good structural stability. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.