Fabrication of Cu2S cathode for Li-ion battery via a low temperature dry thermal sulfuration method

Cu2S film that directly grows on porous Cu foam has been fabricated by a novel dry thermal sulfuration approach. The crystalline structure and morphological observation of the as-synthesized Cu2S/Cu were characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. The electrochemical performance of the Cu2S/Cu as cathode for Li-ion battery was studied by charge/discharge test and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement. The results indicate that the Cu2S/Cu cathode exhibits excellent cycle stability and rate capability. When applying a charge/discharge rate of 0.25 C, it delivers initial discharge and charge capacity of 0.74 and 0.40 mAh cm(-2), respectively. After 100 cycles, the discharge and charge capacity are both 0.41 mAh cm(-2), showing no obvious capacity attenuation. Besides, even after 140 cycles at various rates from 0.3 C to 60 C, the discharge capacity of the Cu2S/Cu cathode can restore 97.8% when lowering the charge/discharge rate to 0.3 C. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.