Fabrication of N-doped carbon confined sulfur cathode and N-doped carbon decorated MnS anode for highly reversible full Li–S batteries

In this paper, N-doped carbon confined sulfur (NC@S) cathode and NC-decorated MnS (NC@MnS) anode were fabricated from the MnS precursor nanorods (NRs) for use in full lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). As-prepared NC@S composite was used as a cathode in a half battery cell, and it showed an excellent discharge capacity of ca. 1615.8 mAh g−1 on the initial cycle and exhibited high cycle stability, rate capability, and coulombic efficiency. Furthermore, the NC@MnS hybrid in a half battery cell exhibited an outstanding discharge capacity of ca. 1202.7 mAh g−1 on the first cycle and showed high cycling performance and superior rate property, in comparison with bare MnS. Accordingly, while the full LSB has consisted of NC@S cathode and NC@MnS anode, it showed the high initial capacity of 1113.8 mAh g−1 from 2.3 to 0.1 V. The improved Li + storage properties suggest that these full LSBs configurations with NC@S and NC@MnS hybrids could be prospective next-generation secondary battery platforms.