Liu, JiaqinXiaonan, LiuZhang, QiLiang, XinYan, JianTan, Hark HoeYu, YanWu, Yucheng2023-03-270013-4686http://hdl.handle.net/1885/287404Lithium-sulfur batteries are spotlighted as the promising next-generation batteries because of their high energy density and low-cost. Nevertheless, intrinsic low conductivity, notorious shuttle effect, and sluggish redox kinetics of sulfur cathode greatly impede their commercialization. Herein, we design and demonstrate a powerful combined strategy to build a novel hybrid architecture for hosting sulfur, which are achieved by growing Ni P nanodot-enriched 3D graphene-like carbon onto carbon fiber paper (NP-3DGC@CFP) via a facile one-step carbonization approach. In the integrated NP-3DGC@CFP/S electrode: micro-mesoporous 3DGC provides abundant space and complicated pore structures to accommodate sulfur and physically confine polysulfide species; polar Ni P nanodots chemically immobilize the lithium polysulfides and accelerate electrochemical reaction kinetics; flexible CFP serves as mechanical scaffold to support the electrode and avoids binder-related limitations. As a result, self-supported NP-3DGC@CFP/S cathode demonstrates an excellent combination of capacity, rate, cycling endurance (1409.4 mAh g at 0.1 C, 538.2 mAh g at 5 C, 786.3 mAh g with 72.7% retention at 0.5 C for 300 cycles) and anti-self-discharge capability. Significantly, such cathode also shows satisfied cycling stability at a high sulfur loading of 6.5 mg cm or at a high rate of 2 C, demonstrating its bright perspective for practical application.This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51972093, U1910210, U1810204, 21702041), Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project "New Materials and Technology for Clean Energy" (B18018), Key Research and Development Plan of Anhui Province (202004b11020024), Na- ture Science Research Project of Anhui province (2008085ME129), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (PA2020GDSK0088, PA2020GDJQ0026)application/pdfen-AU© 2021 Elsevier Ltd.Nickel phosphide3D graphene-like carbonCarbon fiber paperSelf-supportedLithium-sulfur battery202110.1016/j.electacta.2021.1382672022-01-16