Enhancing anchoring and catalytic conversion of polysulfides by nitrogen deficient cobalt nitride for advanced lithium-sulfur batteries

While lithium-sulfur(Li-S)battery has attracted remarkable attention owing to the high theoretical capacity,its practical application is still hindered by the shuttle and sluggish conversion kinetics of intermediate lithium polysulfides(Li PSs).Defect engineering,which can regulate the electronic structure and in turn influence the surface adsorption and catalytic capability,has been regarded as a feasible strategy to deal with the above challenges.However,few studies on nitrogen vacancies and their mechanisms are reported.Herein,cobalt nitride with nitrogen vacancies grown on multi-walled carbon nanotube(CNTCo N-VN)is designed and applied as the separator modification material to investigate the enhancing mechanism of nitrogen vacancies on Li-S batteries.The experimental evidence and theoretical calculation indicate that the introduction of nitrogen vacancies into cobalt nitride can enhance the chemical affinity to Li PSs and effectively hamper the shuttle effect.Meanwhile the reduced band gap of the d-band center of Co and p-band center of N for CNT-Co N-VNand the promoted diffusion of Li^(+) can expedite the solid-liquid and liquid-liquid conversions of sulfur species.Due to these superiorities,the cell with CNT-Co NVNmodified separator delivers a favorable initial capacity of 901 m Ah g^(-1)and a capacity of 660 m Ah g^(-1)can be achieved after 250 cycles at 2 C.This work explores the application of metal nitride with nitrogen vacancies and sheds light on the development of functional separators for high-efficient Li-S batteries.

Nickel-doped CoN nanowire bundles as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction

Cost-efficient electrocatalysts composed of earth-abundant elements are highly desired for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER).As a promising candidate,metallic Co4N already demonstrated electrocatalytic performance relying on specific nanostructures and electronic configurations.Herein,nickel was introduced as the dopant into one-dimensional (1D) hierarchical Co4N structures,achieving effective electronic regulation of Co4N toward high OER performance.The amount of Co3+increased after Ni-doping,and the in-situ formed surface oxyhydroxide during OER enhanced the electrocatalytic kinetics.Meanwhile,the 1D hierarchical structure further promoted the performances of Co4N owing to the high electrical conductivity and abundant activesites on the rough surface.As expected,the optimal Ni-doped Co4N with a Ni/Co molar ratio of 0.25 provides a small overpotential of 233 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2),with a low Tafel slope of 61 mV dec^(-1),and high long-term stability in 1.0 mol L^(-1)KOH.Following these results,the enhancement by doping the Co4N nanowire bundles with Fe and Cu was further evidenced for the OER.