The lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery with high energy density and capacity is a preferential option for next‐generation energy storage technologies. However, the lithium polysulfide shuttling, sluggish redox kinetics, and uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth resulted in low capacity, and limited cycling stability.
Research groups led by Prof. WU Zhongshuai and Prof. YANG Qihua from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed single atom zinc (Zn) decorated hollow carbon spheres as dual‐functional nanoreactors for polysulfides‐suppressed sulfur cathodes and dendrite‐free lithium anodes simultaneously for high-capacity, high-rate, and long-cycling Li-S batteries.
This work was published in Advanced Energy Materials on August 30.
The nanoreactor could host the polysulfides-suppressed sulfur cathode and the dendrite-free lithium anode simultaneously for kinetically enhanced, extremely stable, and high-rate Li-S full batteries.
Due to its excellent electronic conductivity, high surface area, highly-effective active sites and protective carbon shell, the resultant nanoreactor possessed strong physical confinement, chemical anchoring, and exceptional electrocatalysis for polysulfides. Meanwhile, the nanoreactor with excellent lithiophilic ability realized uniform and dendrite-free lithium deposition.
The assembled full battery delivered remarkable electrochemical properties including long cycle stability with an ultralow capacity fading rate of 0.015% per cycle over 700 cycles and superb rate performance of 989 mAh/g at 10 C. Moreover, a high areal capacity of 8.7 mAh/cm2 with high S loading of 7.8 mg/cm2 at low E/S ratio was achieved.
Synthesis schematic of the dual‐functional Zn1‐HNC nanoreactors for Zn1‐HNC‐S cathode and the Zn1‐HNC‐Li anode of the Zn1‐HNC‐S||Zn1‐HNC‐Li full battery (Image by SHI Haodong and REN Xiaomin)
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program of China, and Dalian National Laboratory For Clean Energy. (Text by SHI Haodong and REN Xiaomin)