In lithium−sulfur batteries, a serious obstacle is the dissolution and diffusion of long-chain polysulfides, resulting in rapid capacity decay and low Coulombic efficiency. At present, a common practice is designing cathode materials to solve this problem, but this gives rise to reduced gravimetric and volumetric energy densities. Herein, we present a thiodimolybdate [Mo 2 S 12 ] 2− cluster as sulfur host material that can effectively confine the shuttling of polysulfides and contribute its own capacity in Li−S cells. Moreover, the [Mo 2 S 12 ] 2− cluster as a "bidirectional catalyst" can effectively catalyze polysulfide reduction and lithium sulfide oxidation. We further investigate the catalytic mechanism of [Mo 2 S 12 ] 2− clusters by theoretical calculations, in situ spectroscopic techniques, and electrochemical studies. The (NH 4 ) 2 Mo 2 S 12 /S cathodes show good electrochemical performance under a wide range of temperatures. In addition, a pouch cell fabricated with (NH 4 ) 2 Mo 2 S 12 /S cathodes maintains a stable output for more than 50 cycles.
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