Facile synthesis of TiN nanocrystals/graphene hybrid to chemically suppress the shuttle effect for lithium-sulfur batteries

Herein, we present a microwave reduction strategy for the synthesis of reduced-graphene-oxide (rGO) supported TiN nanoparticle hybrid (TiN/rGO) under N2 atmosphere. The method involves GO reduction, metal oxide reduction and nitridation reaction in one single step. Due to TiN high conductivity and good interfacial affinity between it and lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), the prepared TiN/rGO-Sulfur (TiN/rGO-S) cathodes demonstrate rapid charge transfer, lower polarization, faster surface redox reaction kinetic and enhanced stability cycling performance than rGO-Sulfur (rGO-S) and TiO2/rGO-Sulfur (TiO2/rGO-S) cathodes. The initial capacity reaches 1197.6 mA h g−1 with a reversible capacity of 888.7 mA h g−1 being retained after 150 cycles at 0.1 C.