Recent Advances of Catalytic Effects in Cathode Materials for Room‐Temperature Sodium‐Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Electrocatalysts in room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT-Na/S) have captured numerous attention. But, they suffered from shuttle effect and surface passivation. RT-Na/S show inferior energy-storage abilities, ascribed to the larger radii of Na-ions. Herein, the vigorous review is displayed from different kinds of metal-based traits, containing single metal, metal-based samples, and multifunctional hybrids. Through the controlling of structures and composition, the conversion reaction about liquid/solid phases would be enhanced, accompanied by the enhancements of cycling stabilities and rate properties, which enables the break-through of practical applications. The indepth influences of catalytic effects on the Na-S reaction mechanism and the corresponding electrochemical performance in recently representative works are systematically reviewed. Particularly, this review is anticipated to propose potential research directions for further enhancement of RT-Na/ S batteries.

Advances in understanding and regulation of sulfur conversion processes in metal–sulfur batteries

“…Although porous carbon can physically constrain poly-suldes for enhanced reversibility in RT-SSBs, carbon alone is apparently insufficient to accelerate the Na-S conversion. 140 The use of catalysts has become the main stream to improve electrochemical performance by engineering active sites to accelerate the diffusion-conversion process of polysuldes. 141,142 For metal catalysts in RT-SSBs, Zhang et al 130 loaded transitionmetal (M ¼ Fe, Cu, and Ni) nanoclusters on hollow carbon nanospheres (HC)/sulfur composites.…”

Altered S–S Coulomb Interactions in Polysulfides Associated with VS2/S Nanocomposite Electrodes for Na–S Batteries

“…Room-temperature sodium–sulfur (RT/Na–S) batteries have been considered as an alternative option for electrochemical energy storage systems. − These batteries offer a high theoretical capacity of 1672 mA h/g at low cost, indicating their significant potential in large-scale energy storage applications. − However, these sulfides can result in shuttle effects and slow reaction kinetics, − which hinders the ability of current RT/Na–S batteries to deliver high-capacity electrochemical performance at high speeds . Therefore, new strategies for the current loading method and loading structure of sulfur (S) are required to address these challenges.…”

Recent Advances in Transition‐Metal‐Based Catalytic Material for Room‐Temperature Sodium–Sulfur Batteries

“…Additionally, metal-based host materials with enhanced catalytic and active sites, such as Febased, Co-based, Ni-based, and V-based materials, have been found to chemisorb NaPSs and facilitate the redox reactions of S species, thus improving the utilization of the S cathode and reaction kinetics. [15,[33][34][35][36] Although several excellent reviews have discussed the research progress of catalytic materials used in RT Na-S batteries, there is a lack of insight into the overview of TM-based host materials. Therefore, this review provides a comprehensive summary of TM-based host materials, including their principle of synthesis methods, working mechanisms, and electrochemical kinetics.…”