Oxygen and nitrogen tailoring carbon fiber aerogel with platinum electrocatalysis interfaced lithium/sulfur(Li/S)batteries

Sluggish kinetics of lithium/sulfur(Li/S)conversion chemistry and the ion channels formation in the cathode is still a bottleneck for developing future Li/S batteries with high-rate,long-cycling and high-energy.Here,a rational cathode structure design of an oxygen(O)and nitrogen(N)tailoring carbon fiber aerogel(OCNF)as a host material integrated with platinum(Pt)electrocatalysis interface is employed to regulate Li/S conversion chemistry and ion channel.The Pt nanoparticles were uniformly sprayed onto the S surface to construct the electrocatalysis interface(Pt/S/OCNF)for generating ion channels to promote the effective penetration of electrolyte into the cathode.This Pt/S/OCNF gives the cathode a high sulfur utilization of 77.5%,an excellent rate capacity of 813.2 m Ah/g(2 C),and an outstanding long-cycling performance with a capacitance retention of 82.6%and a decay of 0.086%per cycle after 200 cycles at 0.5 C.Density functional theory(DFT)calculations reveal that the Pt electrocatalysis interface makes the cathode a high density of state(DOS)at Fermi level to facilitate the electrical conductivity,charge transfer kinetics and electrocatalysis to accelerate the lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)electrochemical conversion.Furthermore,the unique chemisorption structure and adsorption ability of Li2Sn(n=1,2,4,6,8)and S8on OCNF are attributed to the bridging effects of interfacial Pt and the bonding of N-Li.The Pt electrocatalysis interface combined with the unique 3D hierarchical porous structure and abundant functional active sites at OCNF guarantee strong adsorption confinement,fast Li/S electrocatalytic conversion and unblocked ion channels for electrolyte permeation in cathode.