%0 Journal Article
%A Min Ling
%A Liang Zhang
%A Tianyue Zheng
%A Jun Feng
%A Jinghua Guo
%A Liqiang Mai
%A Gao Liu
%B Nano Energy
%D 2017
%G eng
%P 82 - 90
%R 10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.05.020
%T Nucleophilic substitution between polysulfides and binders unexpectedly stabilizing lithium sulfur battery
%V 38
%8 01/2017
%! Nano Energy
%X <p>Polysulfide shuttling has been the primary cause of failure in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery cycling. Here, we demonstrate an nucleophilic substitution reaction between polysulfides and binder functional groups can unexpectedly immobilizes the polysulfides. The substitution reaction is verified by UV–visible spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectra. The immobilization of polysulfide is <em>in situ</em> monitored by synchrotron based sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption spectra. The resulting electrodes exhibit initial capacity up to 20.4 mAh/cm<sup>2</sup>, corresponding to 1199.1 mAh/g based on a micron-sulfur mass loading of 17.0&nbsp;mg/cm<sup>2</sup>. The micron size sulfur transformed into nano layer coating on the cathode binder during cycling. Directly usage of nano-size sulfur promotes higher capacity of 33.7 mAh/cm<sup>2</sup>, which is the highest areal capacity reported in Li-S battery. This enhance performance is due to the reduced shuttle effect by covalently binding of the polysulfide with the polymer binder.</p>