Design Principles of Single Atoms on Carbons for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

is a senior scientist at the X-ray Science Division in Argonne National Laboratory. He has developed in situ X-ray techniques to understand the fundamental chemistry of complex disordered solid and solution systems, such as energy storage materials, catalysts, soot, heavy petroleum, oil shale, and carbons. Chemistry is combined with characterization techniques, including mass spectrometry, IR, NMR, and X-ray scattering and spectroscopy. IR and MS are used simultaneously with X-ray techniques. In 2009, he was elected to the inaugural class of the ACS Fellows and was the chair of the 2018 International Conference on Small Angle Scattering.

Environmentally Friendly Binders for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

“…As inspired by the Chinese legend of ‘Emperor Yu tames the flood’, a novel strategy come forth, that is catalyzing long‐chain Li 2 S x conversion rather than blocking them in cathode side. Actually, inorganic materials have been widely incorporated into carbon/sulfur cathodes, which significantly enhance the redox kinetics of polysulfides . However, there have been relatively few reports with the respect to applying the same strategy to construct binders with catalytic ability.…”

Emerging Catalysts to Promote Kinetics of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…Meanwhile, the SACs can serve as nucleation centers to guide Li/Li 2 S plating ascribed to its high surface free energy, which is in favor of fabricating the LSBs without Li dendrites. [ 14 ] 5) The introduction of defects especially vacancy engineering renders catalytic materials exhibit the improved binding energy toward LiPSs and rapid charge transfer by tuning its electronic structures. [ 103 ] This part is mainly aiming to present a comprehensive presentation of the state‐of‐the‐art advances for these emerging metal‐based catalytic materials in LSBs.…”

“…Recently, SACs have recently come into view indistinctly as a new research frontier in LSBs, which efficiently catalyze the kinetic conversion of LiPSs intermediates. [ 14 ] During the synthesis process, a carbon substrate was commonly used as the matrix for metallic SAC landing mainly in the form of metal–nitrogen (M–N) and metal–sulfur (M–S) coordination configuration to bypass the aggregating of individual metal atoms caused by the sharply increased surface free energy. SACs involving cobalt, nickel, iron, molybdenum, etc.…”

“…doping or surface functionalization (OH, O groups etc.) [ 14 ] and the application of polar compounds such as layered double hydroxides (LDHs), metal oxides, and metal sulfides with a remarkable ability to immobilize LiPSs. [ 15–17 ] However, these strategies can only solve the problems to some extent, due to the finiteness of the adsorption sites and the persistence of LiPSs diffusion.…”

“…[ 22,33,34 ] Concurrent with the development of foregoing “traditional catalytic materials,” a series of budding catalytic materials also possess enormous potential for the facilitating LiPSs redox reaction in LSBs, including metal borides, metal phosphides, metal selenides, single atomic, and the introduction of defect engineering and we refer to them as “emerging catalytic materials” ( Figure 1 ). [ 14,35–39 ] In order to obtain prospective research progress for the LSBs, a pioneering overview about the state‐of‐the‐art advances of these emerging catalytic materials is present here.…”