Dodecylamine‐Induced Synthesis of a Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Comb for Advanced Lithium–Sulfur Battery Cathodes

Abstract Host materials that can provide both a strong absorbability of soluble intermediate polysulfides and a high electronic conductivity are in high demand to realize practical applications of Li–S batteries. Here, the rational design of an N‐doped carbon comb (NCC) as a new type of sulfur host for Li–S batteries, delivering a favorable performance, particularly a good cycling stability and rate capability, is reported. A novel dodecylamine micelle‐induced self‐assembling method is first proposed for constructing the NCC host which is built from close‐packed hollow submicron carbon spheres. The interconnected carbon frameworks create good electrical conductive pathways. In addition, the high porosity and the N doping of the NCC host effectively suppress sulfur losses during cycling through synergistic physisorption and chemisorption effects. As a result, cathodes with 71 wt% of sulfur deposited in the NCC host possess superior capacities of 1090 and 553 mAh g−1 at 0.1 and 2 C, respectively. After 300 cycles at 1 C, a reversible capacity of 562 mAh g−1 is retained. Even at a high sulfur loading of 83 wt%, favorable performance is realized.