Super heating/cooling rate enabled by microwave shock on polymeric graphene foam for high performance Lithium-Sulfur batteries

Liu, YY (Liu, Yiyang)^{[ 1 ]} ; Zhang, Y (Zhang, Yan)^{[ 2,3,4,5 ]} ; Liu, Y (Liu, Yang)^{[ 2,3,4,5 ]} ; Zhu, J (Zhu, Jie)^{[ 2,3,4,5 ]} ; Ge, Z (Ge, Zhen)^{[ 2,3,4,5 ]} ; Li, ZJ (Li, Zhongjun)^{[ 1 ]} ; Chen, YS (Chen, Yongsheng)^{[ 2,3,4,5 ]}

CARBON, 2021, 173: 809-816

DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.11.061

摘要

3D polymeric graphene foam (PGF) deposited with Mn3O4 nanocrystals are synthesized via a structural-enhanced microwave plasma technique as highly efficient electrocatalyst for lithium-sulfur battery. The uniform pore-structure of PGF enables high-temperature Ar plasma around 1536 K under microwave irradiation, which leads to super heating/cooling rate of >13700 K s(-1) forming Mn3O4 nanocrystals in 1.2 s. Interconnected PGF layers deposited with the Mn3O4 crystals around 8 nm in diameters can effectively promote the electron transport and anchoring/catalyzing the polysulfides conversion. The cathode exhibits a good capacity fading of 0.092% per cycle over 300 discharge/charge cycles at 0.2 C, indicating good reversibility. The high Mn3O4/graphene ratio and small particle size of the nanocomposite are hard to achieve by other methods within this short period. The instant and low-cost synthesis method is readily scalable and may provide a promising direction for the practical manufacturing of high-performance Li-S batteries. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.