Improved cycling performance of sulfur nanoparticles with a mussel inspired polydopamine coating

Abstract

In this paper, a mussel inspired polydopamine (pDA) coating was successfully used to improve the electrochemical performance of sulfur nanoparticles. Sulfur nanoparticles with a pDA coating of a suitable thickness (i.e. 9.5 nm) could retain a capacity of 385.1 mA h g⁻¹, 54% of the initial capacity at 0.5C (1C = 1670 mA g⁻¹) after 400 charge/discharge cycles. Their cycling performance was greatly improved compared with that of uncoated sulfur nanoparticles due to the stabilization of sulfur nanoparticles by a pDA coating. Due to simplicity of the coating process and strong adhesion of the pDA coating, the process could be easily applied to the surface modification of other electrode materials.