Flexible Tellurium-Based Electrode for High-Performance Lithium-Tellurium Battery.

Low-dimensional nanomaterials have attracted considerable attention for next-generation flexible energy devices owing to their excellent electrochemical properties and superior flexibility. Herein, uniform Tellurium nanotubes (Te NTs) were prepared through a facile hydrothermal method, and then a flexible and freestanding electrode was fabricated with Te NTs as active materials and a small amount of nanofibrillated celluloses (NFCs) as a flexible matrix through a vacuum filtration method without adding extra conductive carbon or a binder. The resulting Te-based electrode exhibits a high volumetric capacity of 1512 mAh cm at 200 mA g, and delivers admirable cyclic stability (capacity retention of 104% over 300 cycles) and excellent rate performance (833 mAh cm at 1000 mA g), which benefits from the unique structure and intrinsically superior conductivity of Te NTs. After bending 50 times, the Te-based electrode delivers a desirable volumetric capacity of 1117 mAh cm, and remains 93% of initial capacity after 100 cycles. The results imply that the Te-based electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical properties and superior flexibility simultaneously, which can serve as a potential candidate for the flexible lithium batteries.