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Ni3FeN anchored on porous carbon as electrocatalyst for advanced Li–S batteries

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Abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery is one of the new-generation energy storage systems with great potential. However, the development of Li–S battery now is hampered by the shuttle effect and depressed redox kinetics. Herein, we report a composite of Ni3FeN nanoparticles anchored in grid-like porous carbon (PC) spheres as an effective cathode electrocatalyst with simultaneous polysulfide trapping and rapid polysulfides conversion in Li–S battery. The multi-cavity structure of PC with high-efficiency encapsulation ability can significantly improve sulfur utilization and confinement. Furthermore, Ni3FeN nanoparticles embedded in PC cavities render highly active catalytic sites to promote the redox conversion of solvated polysulfide, as revealed by the electrochemical results. Moreover, the catalytic mechanism is further analyzed through density functional theory calculations and in-situ Fourier transform infrared analysis. As a result, PC@Ni3FeN@S cathode delivers an outstanding capacity of 1294 mAh·g−1 at 0.1C and low decay rates of 0.10% per cycle over 500 cycles at 0.5C.

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摘要

锂硫电池是极具发展潜力的新一代储能系统之一。然而，目前锂硫电池的发展受到了穿梭效应和缓慢氧化还原动力学的限制。在此，我们报道了一种固定在网格状多孔碳球（PC）中的Ni3FeN纳米颗粒复合材料，其作为一种有效的正极电催化剂，可在Li-S电池中同时捕获多硫化物并快速转化多硫化物。碳球中的多腔结构具有高效封装能力，能显著提高硫的利用率并抑制聚硫化物穿梭效应。此外，电化学结果表明，嵌在多孔碳腔中的Ni3FeN纳米颗粒提供了高活性的催化位点，促进了溶剂化多硫化物的氧化还原转化。通过密度泛函理论计算和原位傅里叶变换红外分析进一步分析了催化机理。这种PC@Ni3FeN@S正极在0.1C下提供了1294 mAh·g-1的出色放电比容量，在0.5C下充放电循环500次以上，衰减仅为每圈0.10%。

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52064049), the Key National Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (No. 2019FY003023), the International Joint Research Center for Advanced Energy Materials of Yunnan Province (No. 202003AE140001), the Key Laboratory of Solid State Ions for Green Energy of Yunnan University (No. 2019), and the Analysis and Measurements Center of Yunnan University for the sample testing service.

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  1. School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China

    Shi-Min Wang, Hua-Ni Li, Gen-Fu Zhao, Lu-Fu Xu, Dang-Ling Liu, Yong-Jiang Sun & Hong Guo

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Wang, SM., Li, HN., Zhao, GF. et al. Ni3FeN anchored on porous carbon as electrocatalyst for advanced Li–S batteries. Rare Met. 42, 515–524 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-022-02140-9

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