Designing 2D nickel hydroxide@graphene nanosheet composites to confine sulfur in highly stable lithium–sulfur batteries

The major challenge of lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) is the ‘‘shuttle effect’’ of polysulfides. Herein, nickel hydroxide@graphene (Ni(OH)2@GR) is synthesized as a sulfur carrier by a simple refluxing method to efficiently confine sulfur for highly stable LSBs. The two-dimensional (2D) vertical arrays of Ni(OH)2 with extensive hydrophilic hydroxyl groups endow the cathode with powerful restriction and strong chemisorption ability of polysulfides. Besides, the typical 2D GR sheets provide a stable barrier for polysulfides and further accelerate the electron/ion migration transmission. Based on the Ni(OH)2@GR sheet-to-sheet heterostructure, the electrodes achieve 72% sulfur loading and exhibit outstanding long-term cycling stability with a decay rate of only 0.002% per cycle at 1C for 500 cycles. This work offers a promising method to reasonably design 2D materials for sulfur host and lithium metal protection.