Nanosulfur/polyaniline/graphene composites for high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries: One pot in-situ synthesis

•A facile in-situ method to prepare nanosulfur@polyaniline/graphene composite.•Aniline monomer is oxidatively polymerized by graphene oxide.•PANI grows on graphene sheet and sulfur nanoparticles embeds in PANI layer.•The sandwich-structured composite shows enhanced electrochemical property.•High initial and reversible capacities as cathode material for Li–S battery.

A sandwich-structured nanosulfur@polyaniline/graphene (nanoS@PANI/G) composite was synthesized through a facile method: polyaniline is polymerized in-situ on graphene sheets and sulfur nanoparticles are deposited into polyaniline layer simultaneously. Such a hierarchical framework combines multiple advantageous features, including a continuous electrically conducting polyaniline@graphene network binding with sulfur nanoparticles, high flexibility accommodating volume expansion and porous space for adsorbing the polysulfides. The resulting composite delivers a high initial capacity of 1625 mA h g−1, remaining a reversible capacity of ~600 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles, making it a promising cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries with high energy density.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide