Integrated Design of Interlayer/Current-Collector: Heteronanowires Decorated Carbon Microtube Fabric for High-Loading and Lean-Electrolyte Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Low sulfur loading, high electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio, and sluggish sulfur redox reaction are the main challenges that severely impede the practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). To address these problems, a self-standing hollow carbonized cotton cloth (CCC) decorated with TiO2 -TiN heteronanowires (CCC@TiO2 -TiN) is proposed to replace the traditional cathode. Concretely, one side of CCC@TiO2 -TiN serves as a current-collector to load sulfur (CCC@TiO2 -TiN/S), while the other side facing the separator acts as interlayer to inhibit shuttle effect. This advanced intergrated interlayer/current-collector cathode is endowed with excellent 3D electron/ion transportation, a strong confinement barrier, and vast sulfur loading sites. Moreover, the as-developed TiO2 -TiN heteronanowires work as in situ capture and catalysis sites for the reversible and accelerated sulfur redox reaction. Therefore, the intergrated cathode of CCC@TiO2 -TiN/S achieves an ultrahigh sulfur loading of 13 mg cm-2 and delivers a superb areal capacity of 9.09 mAh cm-2 under the ultralow E/S ratio of 4.6 µL mg-1 . This work provides a new model material to achieve high sulfur loading and lean-electrolyte toward the practical LSBs with high specific energy density.