CrossRef 52. Lu SY, Tang CW, Lin YH, Kuo HF, Lai YC, Tsai MY, Ouyang H, Hsu WK: TiO 2 -coated carbon nanotubes: a redshift enhanced photocatalysis at visible light. Appl Phys Lett 2010, 96:231915–231913.CrossRef 53. Jiang G, Zheng X, Wang Y, Li T, Sun X: Photo-degradation

of methylene blue by multi-walled carbon nanotubes/TiO 2 composites. Powder Technol 2011, 207:465–469.CrossRef 54. Tian L, Ye L, Deng K, Zan L: TiO 2 /carbon nanotube hybrid nanostructures: solvothermal synthesis and their visible light photocatalytic activity. J Solid State Chem 2011, 184:1465–1471.CrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions FKMA, MHHJ and SR participated in the design of the study. FKMA modified the microwave and prepared and characterized the hybrid nanocatalyst. NJR and AAU participated Alectinib in the analysis of the experimental results. MAY gave his help on the BET measurement and analysis. FKMA and MHHJ jointly prepared the manuscript. All authors read and approved LY294002 molecular weight the final manuscript.”
“Background The advent of new commercial markets for the hybrid electric vehicle and the large-scale energy storage system urges the development of novel battery systems with much higher energy density and lower price than the conventional Li-ion

battery based on the transition metal oxide and graphite [1, 2]. For decades, lithium-sulfur battery has been investigated as a viable candidate to meet these requirements due to its high theoretical energy density of over 2,500 Wh/kg and the low material cost of sulfur [3, 4]. The lithium-sulfur battery utilizes a series of conversion reactions of elemental sulfur (S8) to lithium sulfide (Li2S) on the cathode, resulting in a high cathodic capacity of 1,678 mAh g−1. These reactions involve complex intermediate steps, where various lithium polysulfides (Li2S n , 3 < n < 8) participate as temporary soluble species [5, 6]. Since the Clomifene solubilized lithium polysulfides can cause a significant shuttle reaction, and thus, an excessive

overcharge behavior may occur during the charge process, the dissolution of polysulfide species needs to be suppressed as much as possible. So far, many attempts have been made to control this phenomenon, with a partial success including an addition of mesoporous metal oxide to cathode [7], an encapsulation of sulfur nanoparticles by hollow metal oxide [8], and an adoption of the highly concentrated electrolyte system [9]. The other fundamental challenge of Li-S battery is associated with the insulating low electrical conductivity of sulfur (approximately 5.0 × 10−14 S/cm) which leads to poor electrochemical performance even at moderate current rate [5]. The formation of nano-composite cathode with conducting materials such as carbon and conducting polymer is a common tactic to tackle this issue.