Sulfur cathodes based on conductive MXene nanosheets for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries are amongst the most promising candidates to satisfy emerging energy-storage demands. Suppression of the polysulfide shuttle while maintaining high sulfur content is the main challenge that faces their practical development. Here, we report that 2D early-transition-metal carbide conductive MXene phases-reported to be impressive supercapacitor materials-also perform as excellent sulfur battery hosts owing to their inherently high underlying metallic conductivity and self-functionalized surfaces. We show that 70 wt % S/Ti2 C composites exhibit stable long-term cycling performance because of strong interaction of the polysulfide species with the surface Ti atoms, demonstrated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies. The cathodes show excellent cycling performance with specific capacity close to 1200 mA h g(-1) at a five-hour charge/discharge (C/5) current rate. Capacity retention of 80 % is achieved over 400 cycles at a two-hour charge/discharge (C/2) current rate.