High-Performance Flexible Sulfur Cathodes with Robust Electrode Skeletons Built by a Hierarchical Self-Assembling Slurry

The electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur batteries is fundamentally determined by the structural and mechanical stability of their composite sulfur cathodes. However, the development of cost-effective strategies for realizing robust hierarchical composite electrode structures remains highly challenging due to uncontrollable interactions among the components. The present work addresses this issue by proposing a type of self-assembling electrode slurry based on a well-designed two-component (polyacrylonitrile and polyvinylpyrrolidone) polar binder system with carbon nanotubes that forms hierarchical porous structures via optimized water-vapor-induced phase separation. The electrode skeleton is a highly robust and flexible electron-conductive network, and the porous structure provides hierarchical ion-transport channels with strong polysulfide trapping capability. Composite sulfur cathodes prepared with a sulfur loading of 4.53 mg cm^-2 realize a very stable specific capacity of 485 mAh g^-1 at a current density of 3.74 mA cm^-2 after 1000 cycles. Meanwhile, a composite sulfur cathode with a high sulfur loading of 14.5 mg cm^-2 in a lithium-sulfur pouch cell provides good flexibility and delivers a high capacity of 600 mAh g^-1 at a current density of 0.72 mA cm^-2 for 78 cycles.