AUTHOR=Liu Suyao , Luo Jun , Xiong Yuting , Chen Zhe , Zhang Kailong , Rui Guofeng , Wang Liangbiao , Hu Guang , Jiang Jinlong , Mei Tao 

TITLE=Taming Polysulfides in an Li–S Battery With Low-Temperature One-step Chemical Synthesis of Titanium Carbide Nanoparticles From Waste PTFE

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2021.638557

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2021.638557

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=In this work, titanium carbide (TiC) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized at a much lower temperature of 500 °C using cheaper starting materials, such as waste polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (carbon source), titanium and metallic sodium, than traditional carbothermal reduction of TiO2 at 1800 °C. XRD pattern proved the formation of face-centered cubic TiC, and TEM images showed the obtained TiC nanoparticles with an average size of 50 nm approximately. In addition, the separator coated with TiC nanoparticles as active material of interlayer effectively mitigates the shuttling problem by taming of polysulfides in Li–S batteries compared with traditional celgard separator. The assembled cell realizes good cycling stability with 501 mAh g–1 and a low capacity fading of 0.1 % per cycle after 300 cycles at 1 C rate due to high utilization of the sulfur based active species.