Dual-Functional Lithiophilic/Sulfiphilic Binary-Metal Selenide Quantum Dots Toward High-Performance Li–S Full Batteries

Abstract

The commercial viability of lithium–sulfur batteries is still challenged by the notorious lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) shuttle effect on the sulfur cathode and uncontrollable Li dendrites growth on the Li anode. Herein, a bi-service host with Co-Fe binary-metal selenide quantum dots embedded in three-dimensional inverse opal structured nitrogen-doped carbon skeleton (3DIO FCSe-QDs@NC) is elaborately designed for both sulfur cathode and Li metal anode. The highly dispersed FCSe-QDs with superb adsorptive-catalytic properties can effectively immobilize the soluble LiPSs and improve diffusion-conversion kinetics to mitigate the polysulfide-shutting behaviors. Simultaneously, the 3D-ordered porous networks integrated with abundant lithophilic sites can accomplish uniform Li deposition and homogeneous Li-ion flux for suppressing the growth of dendrites. Taking advantage of these merits, the assembled Li–S full batteries with 3DIO FCSe-QDs@NC host exhibit excellent rate performance and stable cycling ability (a low decay rate of 0.014% over 2,000 cycles at 2C). Remarkably, a promising areal capacity of 8.41 mAh cm−2 can be achieved at the sulfur loading up to 8.50 mg cm−2 with an ultra-low electrolyte/sulfur ratio of 4.1 μL mg−1. This work paves the bi-serve host design from systematic experimental and theoretical analysis, which provides a viable avenue to solve the challenges of both sulfur and Li electrodes for practical Li–S full batteries.

Boosting Charge Transport and Catalytic Performance in MoS2 by Zn2+ Intercalation Engineering for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…These peaks can be attributed to the reduction of S 8 to highly soluble LiPSs, the reduction of Li 2 S 4 to insoluble species (Li 2 S 2 /Li 2 S), and the reverse process, respectively. , Furthermore, the S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNF-based cell exhibits lower reduction peak potential and higher oxidation peak potential. This can be attributed to the accelerated redox kinetics of polysulfides on S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNFs, which effectively reduces electrochemical polarization . The CV curves of S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNFs, S/MoS 2 -CNFs, and S/CNFs batteries were analyzed, and the curve slopes of the redox peaks were fitted, as shown in Figure S21.…”

“…This can be attributed to the accelerated redox kinetics of polysulfides on S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNFs, which effectively reduces electrochemical polarization. 50 The CV curves of S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNFs, S/MoS 2 -CNFs, and S/CNFs batteries were analyzed, and the curve slopes of the redox peaks were fitted, as shown in Figure S21. It was found that the S/Zn 0.12 MoS 2 -CNFs had a greater slope, indicating that it had good catalytic reaction kinetics (Tables S1−3).…”

Nanofiber‐Interlocked V2CTx Hosts Enriched with 3D Lithiophilic and Sulfophilic Sites for Long‐Life and High‐Rate Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…A comparison with recent research work also demonstrated the superior cyclic performance of the well-designed Li-N/CF@V 2 CT x anodes, surpassing most composite anodes and enabling ultrahigh current densities (Figure S17, Supporting Information). [52][53][54][55][56][57] In summary, the hierarchical 3D macropore structure with welldispersed lithiophilic V 2 CT x nanosheets effectively suppressed dendrite growth and volume fluctuation.…”

High Energy Density Aqueous Zinc–Chalcogen (S, Se, Te) Batteries: Recent Progress, Challenges, and Perspective

“…Benefiting from the physical confinement of the carbon substrate, the intrinsic shortcoming of S-based composites can be apparently enhanced. [96][97][98] Impressively, these micro-/nanostructured carbon materials will not only facilitate electrolyte penetration into electrode to boost zinc-ion diffusion kinetics, but also buffer the volume fluctuation of S cathode during the dynamic cycling. [99][100][101] A pioneering work was carried out by using carbon-nanotube-supported 50 wt% sulfur (generalized as S@CNT-50) as a conversional cathode, Jiang and co-workers designed a rechargeable and cost-effective aqueous Zn-S battery, as indicated in Figure 3a.…”