Porous Nb₂O₅ Formed by Anodic Oxidation as the Sulfur Host for Enhanced Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), with their high theoretical specific capacity and energy density, have great potential to be a candidate for secondary batteries in the future. However, Li-S batteries suffer from multiple issues and challenges, for example, uneven growth of lithium dendrites, low utilization of the active material (sulfur), and low specific capacity. This paper reports a low-cost and anodic oxidation method to produce niobium pentoxide with a porous structure (P-Nb₂O₅). A simple one-step process was used to synthesize P-Nb₂O₅ with porous structures by anodizing niobium at 40 V in fluorinated glycerol. The porous Nb₂O₅ showed excellent rate capability and good capacity retention by maintaining its structural integrity, allowing us to determine the advantages of its porous structure. As a result of the highly porous structure, the sulfur was not only provided with adequate storage space and abundant adsorption points, but it was also utilized more effectively. The initial discharge capacity with the P-Nb₂O₅ cathode rose to 1106.8 mAh·g^-1 and dropped to 810.7 mAh·g^-1 after 100 cycles, which demonstrated the good cycling performance of the battery. This work demonstrated that the P-Nb₂O₅ prepared by the oxidation method has strong adsorption properties and good chemical affinity.