Large-scale fabrication of reduced graphene oxide-sulfur composite films for flexible lithium-sulfur batteries

The rapid development of flexible electronic devices requires the design of flexible energy-storage devices. Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are attracting much interest due to their high energy density. Therefore, flexible Li-S batteries with high areal capacity are desired. Herein, we fabricated freestanding reduced graphene oxide-sulfur (RGO@S) composite films with a cross-linked structure using a blade coating technique, followed by a subsequent chemical reduction. The porous cross-linked structure endows the composite films with excellent electrochemical performance. The batteries based on RGO@S composite films could exhibit a high discharge capacity of 1381 mAh/g at 0.1 C and excellent cycle stability. Furthermore, the freestanding composite film possesses excellent conductivity and high mechanical strength. Therefore, they can be used as the cathodes of flexible Li-S batteries. As a proof of concept, soft-packaged Li-S batteries were assembled and remained stable electrochemical performance under different bending states.