Fabricating titanium dioxide/N-doped carbon nanofibers as advanced interlayer for improving cycling reversibility of lithium-sulfur batteries

[Display omitted] •TiO2/N-doped carbon nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning-calcination method.•The TiO2/N-CNFs membrane had high adsorption ability for polysulfides.•The membrane alleviated shuttle effect as an interlayer in lithium-sulfur battery.•The lithium-sulfur battery exhibited good rate capability and cycling stability. “Shuttle effect” is detrimental for maintaining the high capacity and cycling reversibility of lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). To inhibit polysulfide migration, N-doped carbon nanofibers (N-CNFs) membrane comprising TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2/N-CNFs) is fabricated using an electrospinning-calcination method and further applied as interlayer in LSBs. The TiO2/N-CNFs interlayer helps the battery to deliver a high specific capacity of 1155.2 mA·h·g−1 at 0.2 C with high Coulombic efficiency, good rate capability and stability. When cycling at 0.5 C, a capacity retention rate of 62.4% is achieved over 300 cycles, which is higher than that of CNFs and TiO2/CNFs counterparts. The excellent performance should mainly be attributed to the alleviated “shuttle effect” deriving from high polysulfide trapping ability of TiO2 nanoparticles and N heteroatoms in interwoven CNFs.