Understanding the high-performance Fe(OH)3@GO nanoarchitecture as effective sulfur hosts for the high capacity of lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract Although the lithium-sulfur battery has received widespread attention for its promising future in the energy-storage practical application areas, it still faces some obstacles that hinder commercial and practical utilizations. Here, a Fe(OH)3@GO nanocomposite, 10–20 nm particles anchored on GO surface, as a novel sulfur host has been developed for Li-S batteries, where the construction of Fe(OH)3@GO nanoarchitecture proceeds via electrostatic self-assembly process between the negatively charged GO sheets and the positively charged Fe(OH)3 colloid particles. The wealthy hydroxyl groups of Fe(OH)3 would appeal to intermediate polysulfides more strongly than Fe2O3, resulting in the surface chemical bonds between Fe(OH)3 and polysulfides. On the other hand, GO often contains different functional groups capable of entrapping polysulfides via forming chemical interactions. These advantages of both Fe(OH)3 and GO give the S/Fe(OH)3@GO cathode high specific capacity (1569.8 mA h g−1 at 0.5 C), good rate performance up to 5 C, and long cycling stability over 500 cycles under high sulfur loading. Compared to Fe2O3@GO nanocomposites, the enhanced electrochemical performance for the Fe(OH)3@GO nanocomposite could be attributed to both sufficient surface binding interaction and fast charge-transfer kinetics.