Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Enables High-Efficiency Recognition and Trapping Lithium Polysulfides for Stable Lithium Sulfur Battery.

Liu, Jie; Qian, Tao; Wang, Mengfan; Liu, Xuejun; Xu, Na; You, Yizhou; Yan, Chenglin · Nano Lett · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Using molecularly imprinted polymer to recognize various target molecules emerges as a fascinating research field. Herein, we applied this strategy for the first time to efficiently recognize and trap long-chain polysulfides (Li<sub>2</sub>S<sub>x</sub>, x = 6-8) in lithium sulfur battery to minimize the polysulfide shuttling between anode and cathode, which enables us to achieve remarkable electrochemical performance including a high specific capacity of 1262 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> at 0.2 C and superior capacity retention of over 82.5% after 400 cycles at 1 C. The outstanding performance is attributed to the significantly reduced concentration of long-chain polysulfides in electrolyte as evidenced by in situ UV/vis spectroscopy and Li<sub>2</sub>S nucleation tests, which were further confirmed by density functional theory calculations. The molecular imprinting is demonstrated as a promising approach to effectively prevent the free diffusion of long-chain polysulfides, providing a new avenue to efficiently recognize and trap lithium polysulfides for high-performance lithium sulfur battery with greatly suppressed shuttle effect.