Abstract
Maintaining structural stability and alleviating the intrinsic poor conductivity of cathode materials are of great importance for practical application of Li–S batteries. Introducing void space and a highly conductive host to accommodate the volume changes and enhance the conductivity would be a smart design to achieve robust construction; effective electron and ion transportation, thus, lead to prolonged cycling life and excellent rate performance. In this regard, we report the design of carbonaceous hybrid with vertically aligned graphene assembled on multi-yolk/shell structured TiC@C nanofibers to afford synergistic properties of enough space, strong chemisorption and active electrocatalysis, high electrical conductivity as a sulfur host. Thus, the as-prepared sulfur cathode delivers an excellent cyclability over 800 cycles, a high areal capacity of 6.81 mA h cm2 at a high sulfur loading (10.5 mg). More importantly, soft package battery was also prepared with a capacity of 530 mAh g−1 and 46.5 mAh in the first cycle at a sulfur loading of 4.5 mg cm−2, which reveals its potential in promoting the practical application of Li–S batteries.
[Display omitted]
•A carbonaceous hybrid with vertically aligned graphene assembled on multi-yolk/shell structured TiC@C nanofibers.•The porous carbon nanofibers skeleton was obtained by the transformation of TiO2 to TiC.•A self-standing and long-range electron conduction network provide more surface area for the deposition of Li2S.•In-situ XRD and EIS were performed to investigate the mechanism during the cycling of Li–S batteries.•The cathode with high S content could deliver remarkable specific capacity, and great cycling durability.