A 2D montmorillonite-carbon nanotube interconnected porous network that prevents polysulfide shuttling

A commercial polypropylene (PP) separator was modified by a one-dimensional carbon nanotube (CNT) and two-dimensional montmorillonite (MMT) hybrid material (CNT-MMT). Because of the high electron conductivity of the CNTs, and the strong polysulfide (LiPS) adsorption ability and easy lithium ion transport through MMT, the interconnected porous CNT-MMT interlayer with excellent structural integrity strongly suppresses LiPS shuttling while maintaining high lithium-ion transport, producing a high utilization of the active sulfur. Lithium-sulfur batteries assembled with this interlayer have a high lithium-ion diffusion coefficient, a high discharge capacity and stable cycling performance. They had an initial specific capacity of 1 373 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, and a stable cycling performance with a low decay rate of 0.062% per cycle at 1 C after 500 cycles.