Superfast and solvent-free core-shell assembly of sulfur/carbon active particles by hail-inspired nanostorm technology for high-energy-density Li-S batteries

The demand on low-carbon emission fabrication technologies for energy storage materials is increasing dramatically with the global interest on carbon neutrality. As a promising active material for metal-sulfur batteries, sulfur is of great interest due to its high-energy-density and abundance. However, there is a lack of industry-friendly and low-carbon fabrication strategies for high-performance sulfur-based active particles, which, however, is in critical need by their practical success. Herein, based on a hail-inspired sulfur nano-storm (HSN) technology developed in our lab, we report an energy-saving, solvent-free strategy for producing core-shell sulfur/carbon electrode particles (CNT@AC-S) in minutes. The fabrication of the CNT@AC-S electrode particles only involves low-cost sulfur blocks, commercial carbon nanotubes (CNT) and activated carbon (AC) micro-particles with high specific surface area. Based on the above core-shell CNT@AC-S particles, sulfur cathode with a high sulfur-loading of 9.2 mg cm(-2) delivers a stable area capacity of 6.6 mAh cm(-2) over 100 cycles. Furthermore, even for sulfur cathode with a super-high sulfur content (72 wt% over the whole electrode), it still delivers a high area capacity of 9 mAh cm(-2) over 50 cycles in a quasi-lean electrolyte condition. In a nutshell, this study brings a green and industryfriendly fabrication strategy for cost-effective production of rationally designed S-rich electrode particles. (C) 2021 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The demand for low-carbon emission fabrication technologies for energy storage materials is rapidly increasing with global interest in carbon neutrality. Sulfur is a promising active material for metal-sulfur batteries due to its high-energy-density and abundance, but there is currently a lack of industry-friendly and low-carbon fabrication strategies. This study presents an energy-saving, solvent-free strategy for producing core-shell sulfur/carbon electrode particles based on a hail-inspired sulfur nano-storm technology, offering a green and cost-effective solution for producing rationally designed S-rich electrode particles.