Metal Sulfide‐Decorated Carbon Sponge as a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst and Absorbant for Polysulfide in High‐Loading Li₂S Batteries

Abstract

serious issues with conventional Li-S batteries, such as the large volume expansion (≈79 vol%), insulating property of sulfur, and Li dendrites formed on the surface of the lithium-metal anode. [15][16][17][18][19] Owing to its high theoretical specific capacity (1166 mA h g −1 ) and particularly its ability to be paired with a lithium-metal-free anode, Li 2 S has been regarded as a more attractive and safer cathode for nextgeneration advanced Li-S batteries. [20][21][22][23][24] However, the high initial charge barrier, low conductivity, soluble intermediate lithium polysulfide (LiPS) dissolution into the organic liquid electrolyte, and sluggish kinetics during the Li-S redox reaction remain a serious challenge that must be solved for the practical application of the Li 2 S cathode. [25][26][27][28] To address such issues, several strategies have been pursued in the literature. For example, the conductivity of Li 2 S composite can be effectively improved by physically confining the Li 2 S within the structure of a conductive carbonaceous matrix. [29][30][31] The high initial charge barrier can be reduced through a reduction of the particle size of Li 2 S [32][33][34] and an incorporation of P 2 S 5 into the electrolyte. [35] However, the cycling stability resulting from LiPS shuttling still remains a challenge because of the nonpolar nature of carbon and the weak affinity toward LiPS with high polarity. In addition, the sluggish kinetics during the Li-S redox reaction further decreases the utilization of Li 2 S. [36][37][38] In this regard, it is still crucial to develop an electrode which can not only effectively confine Li 2 S within the electrode structure, but also accelerate the kinetics during the Li-S redox.In this work, we present a 3D transition-metal sulfide-decorated carbon sponge (3DTSC) with excellent eletrocatalytic and absorption activity, which is constructed with 0D transitionmetal sulfide (TS, TS = NiS, CoS, MnS) nanodots, 1D carbon nanowires, and 2D graphene nanosheets. In this well-designed multiscale, multidimensional, and hierarchically ordered 3D architecture, each component can contribute its individual advantages simultaneously. First, the 0D metal sulfide nanodots homogenously decorated on 3DTSC can provide rich active sites with high catalytic activity and strong chemical interaction toward sulfide species. In addition, the 1D carbon nanowires cross-linked with 2D graphene nanosheets form a 3D porous and conductive network, which can effectively Owing to its high theoretical specific capacity (1166 mA h g −1 ) and particularly its advantage to be paired with a lithium-metal-free anode, lithium sulfide (Li 2 S) is regarded as a much safer cathode for next-generation advanced lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. However, the low conductivity of Li 2 S and particularly the severe "polysulfide shuttle" of lithium polysulfide (LiPS) dramatically hinder their practical application in Li-S batteries. To address such issues, herein a bifuctional 3D metal sulfide-decorated carbon sponge (3DTSC), wh...

Lithium Sulfide as Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries: Advances and Challenges

“…e 1D carbon nanowires cross-linked with 2D graphene nanosheets avoid aggregation and construct a 3D porous and conductive network, which not only facilitate the electronic and ionic conduction but also provide enough space for hosting Li 2 S (Figure 9). Among the above metal sulfides, CoS has the highest electrocatalytic effect and exhibits an outstanding electrochemical performance with a high areal capacity of 8.44 mAh·cm − 2 [66].…”

“…(a) Schematic of the synthesis of the 3DTSC. (b) Schematic of the function mechanism of metal sulfides[66].…”

Cationic Covalent‐Organic Framework as Efficient Redox Motor for High‐Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21] In addition, the polar materials can efficiently anchor polysulfides [22][23][24] and the effective catalysts contribute to the redox conversion of them. [25][26][27] Because of the hierarchical porous structure and the electrical conductivity, the doped or functionalized carbon materials are being widely researched as the cathode host to improve the Li-S batteries performance. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] However, even the carbon materials with good electrical conductivity could facilitate the transformation of the electrons and power the redox reaction in Li-S batteries, the vast majority of common carbon materials are amorphous and structurally uncertain, resulting in uneven characters of the materials and unclear mechanism of the interaction between host materials and sulfur.…”

Oxygen vacancies-rich cobalt-doped NiMoO4 nanosheets for high energy density and stable aqueous Ni-Zn battery

“…As the most widely used energy storage devices commercially, lithium-ion batteries possess the advantages of high capacity, superior energy density and stable charging-discharging performance. However, the safety issues mainly caused by the unavoidable formation of lithium dendrite, as well as insufficient power density and high cost, severely hinder their further applications [4][5][6][7]. Alternatively, conventional aqueous alkaline rechargeable batteries with the merits of high safety, outstanding power density and abundant resources, have received much more attention recently, such as Ni-Fe [8,9], Ni-Co [10,11], Ni-Bi [7,12], and Ni-Zn batteries [13,14].…”