Sulfur cathodes based on dual-functional GMs-MnOOH for high performance lithium sulfur batteries

Abstract Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have been regarded as a next generation energy storage systems candidate due to its high theoretical energy density. However, the polysulfide dissolution and the sluggish redox reaction kinetics still hinder its practical applications. Herein, a 2D layered graphene micro-sheets, loaded with mesoporous MnOOH (GMs-MnOOH) as an energetic sulfur host for LSBs is reported. This sulfur host material works in two ways: anchoring sulfur and lithium polysulfides by nonpolar GMs and Lewis acidic Mn (III) center of porous structure MnOOH. As a result, with a sulfur content of 56 wt%, GMs-MnOOH/S cathodes present significantly improved rate performance and cycling stability. The GMs-MnOOH/S electrode delivered a specific capacity of 952 mAhg−1 and 807 mAhg−1 at 1C and 2C, respectively. This work provides a promising guidance to realize highly efficient hosts for Li-S batteries with high sulfur loading.