Nano Letters
Nano Letters
5 years ago

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Enables High-Efficiency Recognition and Trapping Lithium Polysulfides for Stable Lithium Sulfur Battery

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Enables High-Efficiency Recognition and Trapping Lithium Polysulfides for Stable Lithium Sulfur Battery
Yizhou You, Xuejun Liu, Tao Qian, Jie Liu, Mengfan Wang, Chenglin Yan, Na Xu
Using molecularly imprinted polymer to recognize various target molecules emerges as a fascinating research field. Herein, we applied this strategy for the first time to efficiently recognize and trap long-chain polysulfides (Li2Sx, x = 6–8) in lithium sulfur battery to minimize the polysulfide shuttling between anode and cathode, which enables us to achieve remarkable electrochemical performance including a high specific capacity of 1262 mAh g–1 at 0.2 C and superior capacity retention of over 82.5% after 400 cycles at 1 C. The outstanding performance is attributed to the significantly reduced concentration of long-chain polysulfides in electrolyte as evidenced by in situ UV/vis spectroscopy and Li2S nucleation tests, which were further confirmed by density functional theory calculations. The molecular imprinting is demonstrated as a promising approach to effectively prevent the free diffusion of long-chain polysulfides, providing a new avenue to efficiently recognize and trap lithium polysulfides for high-performance lithium sulfur battery with greatly suppressed shuttle effect.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02332

DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02332

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