Thiol-Containing Metal–Organic Framework-Decorated Carbon Cloth as an Integrated Interlayer–Current Collector for Enhanced Li–S Batteries

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries hold great promise for new-generation energy storage technologies owing to their overwhelming energy density. However, the poor conductivity of active sulfur and the shuttle effect limit their widespread use. Herein, a carbon cloth decorated with thiol-containing UiO-66 nanoparticles (CC@UiO-66(SH)2) was developed to substitute the traditional interlayer and current collector for Li–S batteries. One side of CC@UiO-66(SH)2 acts as a current collector to load active materials, while the other side serves as an interlayer to further restrain polysulfide shuttling. This two-in-one integrated architecture endows the sulfur cathode with fast electron/ion transport and efficient chemical confinement of polysulfides. More importantly, rich thiol groups in the pores of UiO-66(SH)2 serve to tether polysulfides by both covalent interactions and lithium bonding. Therefore, the Li–S battery equipped with this integrated interlayer–current collector not only delivers an enhanced specific capability (1209 mAh g–1 at 0.1 C) but also exhibits prominent cycling stability (an attenuation rate of 0.037% per cycle for 1000 cycles at 1 C). Meanwhile, the battery achieves a high discharge capacity of 795 mAh g–1 at a sulfur loading of 3.83 mg cm–2. The new metal–organic framework (MOF)-based electrode material reported in this study undoubtedly provides insights into the exploration of functional MOFs for robust Li–S batteries.