Streamline Sulfur Redox Reactions to Achieve Efficient Room-Temperature Sodium-Sulfur Batteries.
Yaojie LeiCan WuXinxin LuWeibo HuaShaobo LiYaru LiangHanwen LiuWei-Hong LaiQinfeng GuXiaolan CaiNana WangYun-Xiao WangShu-Lei ChouHua-Kun LiuGuoxiu WangShi-Xue DouPublished in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) (2022)
It is vital to dynamically regulate S activity to achieve efficient and stable room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT/Na-S) batteries. Herein, we report using cobalt sulfide as an electron reservoir to enhance the activity of sulfur cathodes, and simultaneously combining with cobalt single atoms as double-end binding sites for a stable S conversion process. The rationally constructed CoS 2 electron reservoir enables the straight reduction of S to short-chain sodium polysulfides (Na 2 S 4 ) via a streamlined redox path through electron transfer. Meanwhile, cobalt single atoms synergistically work with the electron reservoir to reinforce the streamlined redox path, which immobilize in situ formed long-chain products and catalyze their conversion, thus realizing high S utilization and sustainable cycling stability. The as-developed sulfur cathodes exhibit a superior rate performance of 443 mAh g -1 at 5 A g -1 with a high cycling capacity retention of 80 % after 5000 cycles at 5 A g -1 .