Promoting polysulfide conversions via cobalt single-atom catalyst for fast and durable lithium-sulfur batteries

Although promising strategies have been developed to resolve the critical drawbacks of lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries,the intractable issues including undesirable shuttling of polysulfides and sluggish redox reaction kinetics have still been unresolved thoroughly.Herein,a cobalt single-atom(CoSA)catalyst comprising of atomic Co distributed homogeneously within nitrogen(N)-doped porous carbon(Co-NPC)nanosphere is constructed and utilized as a separator coating in Li-S batteries.The Co-NPC exposes abundant active sites participating in sulfur redox reactions,and remarkable catalytic activity boosting the rapid polysulfide conversions.As a result,Li-S batteries with Co-NPC coating layer realize significantly enhanced specific capacity(1295 mAh·g^(-1)at 0.2 C),rate capability(753 mAh·g^(-1)at 3.0 C),and long-life cyclic stability(601 mAh·g^(-1)after 500 cycles at 1.0 C).Increasing the areal sulfur loading to 6.2 mg·cm^(-2),an extremely high areal capacity of 7.92 mAh·cm^(-2)is achieved.Further in situ X-ray diffraction,density functional theory calculations,and secondary ion mass spectrometry confirm the high catalytic capability of CoSA towards reversible polysulfide conversion.This study supplies new insights for adopting single-atom catalyst to upgrade the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries.