Tube-in-Tube Structure Design and In-situ Growth of Fe3C for Efficient Reaction Kinetics in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

To improve the sulfur reaction kinetics and inhibit the notorious shuttle effects, a tube-in-tube structure decorated by carbon nanotubes (CNT) and Fe₃C nanoparticles (TIT/Fe₃C-CNT) is designed as sulfur host for lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) in this work. The construction of tube-in-tube structure increases the active sites and the specific surface area of the material. Additionally, Fe₃C nanoparticles can effectively adsorb the soluble lithium polysulfides and promote their catalytic conversion, thus greatly alleviating the shuttle effects. As a result of these advantages, the TIT/Fe₃C-CNT-based cathode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 841 mAh g⁻¹ after 200 cycles with a low decay of 0.056 % per cycle at 0.5 C. This work provides a promising and reasonable approach to the rational design of sulfur host for LSBs.