Perovskite lead zirconate titanate (PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3) nanofibers for inhibiting polysulfide shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur batteries

Rapid capacity fade and untimely failure caused by the infamous "shuttle effect" prevents the commercialization of Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSB). In this work, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanofibers have been employed as polysulfide immobilizer in LSB. Ferroelectric materials possess a unique domain structure where each individual domain carries a dipole moment. The dipole-dipole interaction between the domains of the ferroelectric PZT nanofibers and polysulfides inhibits the diffusion of polysulfides from the cathode. In addition to electrostatic interactions, the 1-dimensional nanofibers with large specific surface area are accompanied by lithiophilic and sulfiphilic heteroatoms which act as anchoring points for chemically binding the polysulfides. Moreover, the enhanced wettability of the electrode arising from the favorable affinity of PZT nanofibers towards the electrolyte along with lithiophilic heteroatoms aids the diffusion of Lithium-ions. Briefly, the synergy of physical and chemical interaction of PZT nanofibers towards the polysulfide species is found to mitigate the shuttle effect and improve electrochemical performance of LSB. Further, a promising long-term cycling over 200 cycles for LSB cell with PZT interlayer is observed with 98% Coulombic efficiency and slow fade rate of 0.08% per cycle.