Synergy of palygorskite supported polyaniline and MoS2 for improvement of Li-S Battery performance

Clay minerals' distinctive structure and adsorption characteristics are intended to solve problems in the sulfur cathode of Li-S batteries. Although the Li-S battery has a high theoretical capacity, it has been challenging to achieve industrial application owing to problems with polysulfide dissolution, poor conductivity, and slow electrode reaction dynamics. This study prepared Palygorskite/polyaniline composites (Pal/P) using the liquid phase polymerization approach, followed by a palygorskite/polyaniline-MoS2 (Pal/P-Mo) composite prepared using the hydrothermal assembly of molybdenum sulfide nanoparticles. The Pal/P-Mo exhibits a higher specific capacity (939 mAh g- 1, 0.5C) than the polyaniline/MoS2 (426 mAh g- 1, 0.5C). The 200-cycle average capacity of the Pal/P-Mo (782.24 mAh g-1) composite is 3.46 times that of the polyaniline/MoS2 (244.71 mAh g-1) com-posite, which is considerably superior to that of other Pal composites. Excellent performance attributed to palygorskite can effectively regulate the PANI chain structure and disperse the MoS2 catalytic site. This study completely utilized the adsorption capabilities of palygorskite and discovered that palygorskite had a substantial synergistic effect with PANI and MoS2. This increases its application potential in the field of energy.

Automated summary

This study prepared Palygorskite/polyaniline composites and discovered that the Pal/P-Mo composite exhibited higher specific capacity and longer cycle life compared to other composites. This is attributed to the regulatory effect of Palygorskite on the PANI chain structure and the dispersion of MoS2 catalytic sites.