Enhancing electrochemical conversion of lithium polysulfide by 1T-rich MoSe_(2) nanosheets for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

The sluggish conversion kinetics and shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)severely hamper the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries.Numerous electrocatalysts have been used to address these issues,amongst which,transition metal dichalcogenides have shown excellent catalytic performance in the study of lithium-sulfur batteries.Note that dichalcogenides in different phases have different catalytic properties,and such catalytic materials in different phases have a prominent impact on the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries.Herein,1T-phase rich MoSe_(2)(T-MoSe_(2))nanosheets are synthesized and used to catalyze the conversion of LiPSs.Compared with the 2H-phase rich MoSe_(2)(H-MoSe_(2))nanosheets,the T-MoSe_(2) nanosheets significantly accelerate the liquid phase transformation of LiPSs and the nucleation process of Li2S.In-situ Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS)find that T-MoSe_(2) effectively captures LiPSs through the formation of Mo-S and Li-Se bonds,and simultaneously achieves fast catalytic conversion of LiPSs.The lithium-sulfur batteries with T-MoSe_(2) functionalized separators display a fantastic rate performance of 770.1 mAh/g at 3 C and wonderful cycling stability,with a capacity decay rate as low as 0.065%during 400 cycles at 1 C.This work offers a novel perspective for the rational design of selenide electrocatalysts in lithium-sulfur chemistry.