Reduced Graphene Oxide-Coated Zinc–Cobalt Oxide Nanosheet Arrays with N-Doped Carbon Anchored on Carbon Cloths as Cathode Materials for High-Sulfur-Loading Li–S Batteries

To meet practical application needs, high-mass-loading lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are urgently needed for achieving good electrochemical performance. Here, unique three-dimensional (3D) reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-coated ultrathin zinc–cobalt oxide composite N-doped carbon self-supporting stratified porous nanosheet arrays, anchored on flexible carbon cloths (CCs) (rGO-S/ZnCo2O4@NC/CCs), are designed and chosen as independent cathodes. A lithium–sulfur battery using rGO-S/ZnCo2O4@NC/CC as the cathode exhibits a high capacity of around 1377.8 mAh g–1 and retains an outstanding capacity of around 1006.3 mAh g–1 after 700 cycles at 0.1 C with a sulfur loading of 2.2 mg cm–2. Moreover, even under a high sulfur load of 8.2 mg cm–2, a superior capacity of 735.9 mAh g–1 can be achieved at 0.1 C. In this work, a special function and a 3D self-supporting stratified porous nanostructure with a conductive rGO coating have been designed, which reasonably alleviate the “shuttle effect” of high-load Li–S batteries through the “internal and external double repair” action.