Our paper entitled with “Free-Standing Integrated Cathode Derived from 3D Graphene/Carbon Nanotube Aerogels Serving as Binder-Free Sulfur Host and Interlayer for Ultrahigh Volumetric-Energy-Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries” has been published online in high-impact journal Nano Energy (IF=13.12). Congratulation to Haodong and Xuejun!

The actual applications of lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries are significantly obstructed by limited cyclability and low volumetric-energy-density due to the shuttling effect of polysulfides and low mass density of sulfur cathode. Herein, we report a free-standing, compact, conductive and integrated cathode (G/CNT-S//G/CNT), constructed by compressing graphene/carbon nanotubes (G/CNT) aerogels, simultaneously serving as bi-functionalities of binder- and metal-current-collector-free sulfur host (G/CNT-S) and interlayer (G/CNT), for high volumetric-energy-density Li-S batteries. The G/CNT aerogels display three-dimensional interconnected porous network, large surface area (363 m2 g-1) and high electrical conductivity (67 S m-1), which can endow the cathode with ultrahigh volumetric mass density (1.64 g cm-3) and superior electron-ion transport network. Meanwhile, the compressed ultralight G/CNT film can act as flexible interlayer for synergistically suppressing the polysulfide shuttling via both chemical interaction and physical restriction. Consequently, the compact cathodes, achieve high capacity of 1286 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C and long-term cyclability with an extremely low decay rate of 0.06% over 500 cycles at 2 C. Most importantly, our compact cathodes represent unprecedented volumetric capacity of 1841 Ah L-1 and volumetric-energy-density of 2482 Wh L-1, both of which are the highest values of Li-S batteries reported to date. Therefore, this proposed strategy will open a new avenue for developing high volumetric-energy-density Li-S batteries.

H.D. Shi, X.J. Zhao, Z.-S. Wu*, Y.F. Dong, P.F. Lu, J. Chen, W.C. Ren, H.-M. Cheng, X.H. Bao Free-Standing Integrated Cathode Derived from 3D Graphene/Carbon Nanotube Aerogels Serving as Binder-Free Sulfur Host and Interlayer for Ultrahigh Volumetric-Energy-Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries. Nano Energy, 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.04.006