Nickel Oxide Decorated Halloysite Nanotubes as Sulfur Host Materials for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur batteries with high energy density still confront many challenges, such as polysulfide dissolution, the large volume change of sulfur, and fast capacity fading in long-term cycling. Herein, a naturally abundant clay material, halloysite, is introduced as a sulfur host material in the cathode of Li-S batteries. Nickel oxide nanoparticles are embedded into the halloysite nanotubes (NiO@Halloysite) by hydrothermal and calcination treatment to improve the affinity of halloysite nanotubes to polysulfides. The NiO@Halloysite composite loaded with sulfur (S/NiO@Halloysite) is employed as the cathode of Li-S batteries, which combines the physical confinements of tubular halloysite particles and good chemical adsorption ability of NiO. The S/NiO@Halloysite electrode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 1205.47 mAh g at 0.1 C. In addition, it demonstrates enhanced cycling stability, retaining ≈60% of initial capacity after 450 cycles at 0.5 C. The synthesized NiO@Halloysite can provide a promising prospect and valuable insight into applying natural clay materials in Li-S batteries.