LAUSR

Abstract Exploiting effective protocols to suppress the lithium polysulfide shuttling effect is critical to achieve a long life for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Here we demonstrate a laminated separator which was obtained by coating a layer of tubular nitrogen doped carbon fibre (TNCF) on PP/PE/PP separator with an expect to alleviate such a problem. The hollow structured one-dimensional TNCF was obtained by pyrolyzing the tubular polypyrrole (PPy) which was synthesized through an auto-degradable template method. And the laminated separator was prepared by a simple vacuum-assisted filter method. Due to enhancement of the electrical conductivity and the chemisorption with lithium polysulfides, we observed that the rate performance and the cyclability of the Li-S battery were remarkably enhanced when the TNCF separator was used. The capacity decay rate were determined to be 0.13 % and 0.33% per cycle upon 200 cycles at 0.5 C for the Li-S batteries with the TNCF coated and the un-coated separators, respectively. That present the TNCF coated separator a promising high performance separator for long-life Li-S batteries.