Nickel fibers/sulfur composites cathode with enhanced electrochemical performance for rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries

The commercialization of lithium sulfur batteries have so far hindered by the low electrochemical utilization and rapid capacity fading of sulfur cathode, which is induced by low electron conductivity and high dissolution of intermediate polysulfides. Recent studies have shown that the metal (Pt, Au, Ni) as electrocatalyst of lithium polysulfides and its metallic porous nanostructure can suppress the shuttle effect. In this work, we use the porous nanostructure of nickel fibers/sulfur as-designed composite cathode material for lithium sulfur batteries. The initial discharge capacity of the cathode with the added 3(%) nickel fibers was 805 mAh g−1, and the remaining capacity was 440 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at 0.766 mA cm−2. Even at a high current density of 1.532 mA cm−2, it also kept a high discharge capacity of 310 mAh g−1. Compared with pure sulfur electrodes, the electrodes containing nickel fibers showed an obviously improved cycle and rate performances, confirming that metallic porous nanostructure of nickel can not only contribute to reducing the dissolution of polysulfides into electrolytes, but also has a catalytic effect on the redox reactions during charge-discharge process.