In situ engineered ZnS–FeS heterostructures in N-doped carbon nanocages accelerating polysulfide redox kinetics for lithium sulfur batteries

Abstract

Building heterostructures containing dissimilar coupling components with different bandgaps can promote interfacial reaction kinetics and accelerate charge carrier transport for Li–S batteries.

In Situ Construction of Mo2C Quantum Dots‐Decorated CNT Networks as a Multifunctional Electrocatalyst for Advanced Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…It can be observed that the MCN/S electrode exhibits the lowest R ct of 46.8 Ω and R s of 3.6 Ω, smaller than those of BMC/S (163.4 and 3.9 Ω) and CNT/S (210.2 and 3.8 Ω) electrodes, which can be attributed to the enhanced interfacial reaction kinetics and fast Li + /e − transfer in MCN/S electrode. [50][51][52] Moreover, the ex situ EIS spectra of the CNT/S, BMC/S, and MCN/S electrodes during discharge process are shown in new Figure S9b,c in the Supporting Information, the R ct value decreases with the conversion between S 8 and Li 2 S. It is noted that there is an obvious decrease in the interface resistance of the BMC/S electrode compared with CNT/S during the discharge process, which demonstrates that the Mo 2 C optimized conversion kinetics. Moreover, the R ct of MCN/S electrode is much less than BMC/S and CNT/S electrodes in the whole discharge process, indicating the superior reaction interphase of MCN.…”

Emerging Catalysts to Promote Kinetics of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…Along this way, Li and co‐workers proposed a ZnS–FeS heterostructure wrapped in N‐doped carbon (ZnS–FeS/NC) nanocage as a multifunctional sulfur host. [ 173 ] As indicated from DFT calculations, the ZnS–FeS heterostructures with distinctly different intrinsic energy bandgaps of ≈0.8 eV for FeS and ≈4.9 eV for ZnS generated a strong built‐in electric field at the heterointerface and therefore accelerated the redox reaction of LiPSs in this respect (Figure 17c). Furthermore, the hollow structures provided a large space for anchoring of soluble LiPSs to eventually combine the merits of adsorption and catalysis.…”

“…Thus far, key efforts have been devoted to designing reasonable heterostructure system to realize the synergy of catalysis and adsorption, such as TiO 2 –TiN, VO 2 –VN, MoN–VN, VTe 2 @MgO, WS 2 –WO 3 , TiO 2 –TiN, V 2 O 3 /V 8 C 7 , NiO–NiCo 2 O 4 , SnS 2 /SnO 2 , and ZnS–FeS, etc. [ 29,62,168–174 ] In this section, we focus on the effective construction strategies for heterostructure with respect to simultaneously improved adsorption and catalysis throughout catalytic materials design.…”

“…Panel (c) reproduced with permission. [ 173 ] Copyright 2020, The Royal Society of Chemistry. d) Long‐term cycling performances of S@3VO 2 –1VN/G cathode at 2 C. Panel (d) reproduced with permission.…”

Metal–Organic‐Framework‐Derived Nanostructures as Multifaceted Electrodes in Metal–Sulfur Batteries

“…Zhang and co‐workers proposed ZnS–FeS heterostructures incorporated into N‐doped carbon with various inherent energy bandgaps involving 0.8 eV for FeS, while 4.9 eV for ZnS (Figure 18g). [ 278 ] Therefore, a powerful E‐field in the heterointerface was generated due to the prominent energy bandgaps between the two components, which could efficiently facilitate polysulfide conversion. Moreover, the dynamics analyses and DFT computation also verified that the heterostructure‐rich cathodes could promote charge transfer, enhance the polysulfides confinement, and accelerate the surface redox dynamics, thus resulting in an outstanding rate capacity and favorable cycling stability (Figure 18h,i).…”