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Review of nanostructured current collectors in lithium–sulfur batteries

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Abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are receiving increasing attention because of their high theoretical energy density and the natural abundance of S. However, their practical applications are impeded by the low areal S loading in the cathode and the fatal Li dendrites in the anode of the Li−S cells, which yield an inferior practical energy density and introduce safety concerns, respectively. In this review, we focus on an emerging approach—the nanostructured current collector—to overcome these two critical challenges for Li−S batteries. We describe the general attributes of nanostructured current collectors and examine how these attributes enhance the S utilization with a high S loading and suppress the Li dendrites by regulating the Li-deposition behavior. We present various assembly blocks that have been used for the construction of advanced nanostructured current collectors to build better S cathodes and Li anodes. Finally, we investigate the current challenges and possible solutions regarding the practical applications of nanostructured current collectors in Li−S batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program (Nos. 2016YFA0202500, 2016YFA0200102, and 2015CB932500), and the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (Nos. 21422604, 21676160, and 21561130151). We thank Xin-Bing Cheng, Rui Zhang, Chen-Zi Zhao, Zhe Yuan, Dai-Wei Wang, and Lin Zhu for helpful discussion.

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  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Long Kong, Hong-Jie Peng, Jia-Qi Huang & Qiang Zhang

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Kong, L., Peng, HJ., Huang, JQ. et al. Review of nanostructured current collectors in lithium–sulfur batteries. Nano Res. 10, 4027–4054 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1652-x

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