Tungsten disulfide (WS2) is well known to have great potential as an electrocatalyst, but the practical application is hampered by its intrinsic inert plane and semiconductor properties. In this work, owing to a Co-based zeolite imidazole framework (ZIF-67) that effectively inhibited WS2 growth, few-layered WS2 was confined to the surface of Co, N-doped carbon polyhedron (WS2@Co9S8), with more marginal active sites and higher conductivity, which promoted efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). For the first time, WS2@Co9S8 was prepared by mixing in one pot of a liquid phase and calcination, and WS2 realized uniform distribution on the polyhedron surface by electrostatic adsorption in the liquid phase. The obtained hybrid catalyst exhibited excellent OER and HER catalytic activity, and the OER potential was only 15 mV at 10 mA cm–2 higher than that of noble metal oxide (RuO2). The improvement of catalytic activity can be attributed to the enhanced exposure of sulfur edge sites by WS2, the unique synergistic effect between WS2 and Co9S8 on the metal–organic framework (MOF) surface, and the effective shortening of the diffusion path by the hollow multi-channel structure. Therefore, the robust catalyst (WS2@Co9S8) prepared by a simple and efficient synthesis method in this work will serve as a highly promising bifunctional catalyst for OER and HER.

Spatial hindrance of lithium polysulfide (LiPS) diffusion by inserting a barrier interlayer has been deemed as an effective strategy to restrict the shuttle effect in lithium−sulfur batteries (LSBs). However, the extra interlayer without reversible capacity production inevitably reduces the actual energy density of the battery. Herein, a freestanding α-MoO 3 nanobelt interlayer with the decoration of TiN nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes (denoted as MCT) is established. To investigate the capacity compensation effect of the MCT during cell operations, X-ray absorption near-edge spectrometry is conducted. It is revealed that MoO 3 can sustain a reversible Li intercalation/deintercalation in a voltage range of 1.8−2.8 V, providing 180 mAh g −1 of extra capacity for compensating sulfur cathode. In addition, the adsorption of the lithiated α-MoO 3 toward LiPSs is further evaluated. By matching a high-loading sulfur cathode (3.0 mg cm −2 ), a superior capacity of 713.3 mAh g −1 can be retained after 100 cycles under the MCT assistance.