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A facile synthetic strategy for highly microporous Schiff-base polymer as sulfur hosts for lithium-sulfur batteries

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Abstract

The widespread application of Li–S batteries is severely hampered due to the inferior intrinsic conductivity of sulfur, shuttling effects of polysulfides, and volume change of sulfur cathodes. To boost the performance, a highly microporous Schiff-base polymer (HMSP) with linear structure has been synthesized through a facile synthetic strategy and was employed as the hosts for sulfur cathodes. The HMSP offered an impressive specific surface area of 239.2 m2 g−1 with abundant micropores at 1.5 nm, ensuring fast ion and charge transport, and resisting volume change of the electrode. The high N and O contents are beneficial to absorb the polysulfides, reducing the shuttling effect. Benefiting from the above advantages, the HMSP/S cathode generated an initial discharge capacity of 935.5 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C, and robust durability. This work not only developed a facile synthetic route for HMSP but also expanded the application of HMSP in Li–S batteries.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the support from the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (19KJA460002) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu University of Technology (No. KYY18041).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, 213001, People’s Republic of China

    Minnan Hu, Yujuan Chen, Hailin Jia, Zhongchun Li, Jialun Yu, Meijiao Tian, Yang Liu, **ongying Cai & Ya Cai

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Precious Metals Chemistry and Engineering, Changzhou, 213001, People’s Republic of China

    Zhongchun Li

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  1. Minnan Hu
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Correspondence to Zhongchun Li or Ya Cai.

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Hu, M., Chen, Y., Jia, H. et al. A facile synthetic strategy for highly microporous Schiff-base polymer as sulfur hosts for lithium-sulfur batteries. Ionics 27, 4259–4267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-021-04210-x

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