Single-atom Catalytic Materials for Lean-electrolyte Ultrastable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Chao LU, Yan CHEN, Yuan YANG, Xi CHEN*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

126 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries with high energy capacity are promising candidates for advanced energy storage. However, their applications are impeded by shuttling of soluble polysulfides and sluggish conversion kinetics with inferior rate performance and short cycling life. Here, single-atom materials are designed to accelerate polysulfide conversion for Li-S batteries. Nitrogen sites in the structure not only anchor polysulfides to alleviate the shuttle effect but also enable high loading of single-atom irons. Density functional theory calculations indicate that single-atom sites reduce the energy barrier of electrochemical reactions and thus improve the rate and cycling performances of batteries. The coin battery shows impressive energy storage properties, including a high reversible capacity of 1379 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C and a high rate capacity of 704 mAh g-1 at 5 C. The ratio of electrolyte dosage/energy density is as low as 5.5 g Ah1-. It exhibits excellent cycling performance with a capacity retention of 90% even after 200 cycles at 0.2 C. © 2020 American Chemical Society.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5522-5530
Number of pages9
JournalNano Letters
Volume20
Issue number7
Early online date24 Jun 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Jul 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.

Funding

This work was supported by the Earth Engineering Center, Center for Advanced Materials for Energy and Environment at Columbia University, and by startup funding from Columbia University.

Keywords

  • Fast polysulfide kinetics
  • Lean-electrolyte
  • Lithium-sulfur batteries
  • Long cyclic life
  • Single-atom materials

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