Facile and Cheap Carbonized Cotton Cloth Interlayer Endows Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with High Performance in All Climates

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have proven the potential for future power sources due to the ultrahigh theoretical specific capacity, material abundance, and eco-friendliness. However, the insulation of sulfur and the notorious shuttle effect of polysulfides impede the practical use. In this work, we introduced the hollow carbonized cotton cloth (CCC) as an interlayer by simple one-step carbonization. CCC reduces the charge transfer resistance and inhibits the shuttle effect, enabling LSBs with high rate and cycling performances in all climates. Specifically, the LSBs based on the CCC interlayer deliver rate capacities of 118, 399, and 879 mAh g-1 at 2 C at -30, 0, and 50 degrees C, respectively. Correspondingly in the 1 C cycling tests, the initial specific capacities are 168, 490, and 885 mAh g-1; the decay rates are 0.029% (1000 cycles), 0.034% (1000 cycles), and 0.056% (800 cycles). Moreover, with a higher sulfur loading of 2.3 mg cm-2, the ambient CCC battery achieves a decay rate of only 0.03% per cycle in the 1 C test (800 cycles). Compared with commercial carbon cloth, the ultralow price, light weight, easily scalable preparation, and all-climate good performance of CCC can extremely push LSBs to practical use in the future.

Automated summary

In this study, hollow carbonized cotton cloth (CCC) was introduced as an interlayer, which effectively reduced charge transfer resistance and prevented the shuttle effect of polysulfides in lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). The CCC interlayer enabled high rate and cycling performances of LSBs in all climates. This novel interlayer exhibited ultralow price, light weight, easily scalable preparation, and all-climate good performance, making it highly promising for practical use in the future.