Architecture and Performance of the Novel Sulfur Host Material Based on Ti2O3 Microspheres for Lithium-sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur batteries are considered as promising next-generation green secondary batteries. Irrespective of the enhancement of the cycling stability or the suppression of polysulfide species shuttle, although much progress has recently been achieved, improving the conductivity of host materials and capturing the sulfide species as far as possible are still hot topics in the research of lithium–sulfur batteries nowadays. Here, we put forward a novel sulfur host architecture based on Ti2O3 microspheres fabricated by magnesiothermic reduction. The Ti2O3 microspheres possess both high electronic conductivity and excellent ability of anchoring lithium polysulfide species. The high electronic conductivity endowed by a narrow band gap can adequately activate insulative sulfur and reduce the battery resistance so that high specific capacity and excellent rate capability can be achieved, while the polar Ti2O3 could afford abundant polar active sites for the absorption of polysulfides for high capacity retentio...