A Novel One-dimensional Reduced Graphene Oxide/Sulfur Nanoscroll Material and its Application in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

One-dimensional (1D) reduced graphene oxides possess unique structure properties in comparison with conventional graphene sheet material and show great potential in application of high-efficiency energy storage and conversion system. Lithium sulfur batteries have been considered as the promising candidates of high-energy rechargeable batteries due to the high theoretical energy density and cost-efficiency. However, their practical application has been hampered by rapid capacity fading during cycling. In this work, one-dimensional reduced graphene oxide/sulfur nanoscrolls show promise for uniformly confining elemental sulfur in their internal cavities and absorbing polysulfide intermediates. The remarkable electrochemical performance of the reduced graphene oxide/sulfur nanoscroll materials is mainly attributed to the desirable structural features, where sulfur is encapsulated into the RGO nanoscrolls and kept close contact with RGO. The RGO nanoscrolls not only provide the electron transport pathway, but effectively alleviate the dissolution and shuttling of the polysulfides during cycling for lithium sulfur batteries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.