Although great progress has been made in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries in recent years, lithium-sulfur batteries still face a series of problems, including: low utilization rate of active material sulfur, poor cycle stability, and low coulombic efficiency. In order to solve these problems, traditional methods usually compound sulfur and carbon materials, and then mix and coat the composite material of sulfur and carbon with a conductive agent on the current collector as the electrode material of the lithium-sulfur battery.

However, the addition of the current collector and the binder will increase the weight of the electrode and affect the electrochemical performance of the lithium-sulfur battery. In addition, the mechanical properties of traditional lithium-sulfur battery electrodes are relatively poor and cannot be used as electrode materials for flexible lithium-sulfur batteries.

Recently, the research team combined in-situ composite and metal reduction self-assembly methods to prepare a self-supporting flexible graphene/sulfur nanocomposite film. The graphene in the composite film has a continuous network structure, and the sulfur is uniformly dispersed on the surface of the graphene. The continuous network structure of graphene not only provides an effective way for ion and electron transport, but also effectively adsorbs polysulfides and inhibits their dissolution.

Because the composite film has high conductivity and does not require a current collector, it can be directly used as an electrode material for lithium-sulfur batteries, and the composite film exhibits excellent charge and discharge capacity, cycle stability and rate performance. In addition, the unique structure of the graphene/sulfur nanocomposite film makes it have excellent mechanical properties and can maintain electrical properties under different bending conditions. Therefore, the composite film can be used as an electrode material for a flexible lithium-sulfur battery.

This research has played an active role in promoting the application of lithium-sulfur batteries in related fields such as flexible and wearable electronic devices.