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Carbon confinement synthesis of interlayer-expanded and sulfur-enriched MoS2+x nanocoating on hollow carbon spheres for advanced Li-S batteries

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Abstract

High energy density and low-cost lithium-sulfur batteries have been considered as one of the most promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems. However, the intrinsic problems of the sulfur cathode severely restrict their further practical application. Here, a unique double-shell architecture composed of hollow carbon spheres@interlayer-expanded and sulfur-enriched MoS2+x nanocoating composite has been developed as an efficient sulfur host. A uniform precursor coating derived from heteropolyanions-induced polymerization of pyrrole leads to space confinement effect during the in-situ sulfurization process, which generates the interlayer-expanded and sulfur-enriched MoS2+x nanosheets on amorphous carbon hollow spheres. This new sulfur host possesses multifarious merits including sufficient voids for loading sulfur active materials, high electronic conductivity, and fast lithium-ion diffusive pathways. In addition, additional active edge sites of MoS2+x accompanied by the nitrogen-doped carbon species endow the sulfur host with immobilizing and catalyzing effects on the soluble polysulfide species, dramatically accelerating their conversion kinetics and re-utilization. The detailed defect-induced interface catalytic reaction mechanism is firstly proposed. As expected, the delicately-designed sulfur host exhibits an outstanding initial discharge capacity of 1,249 mAh·g−1 at 0.2 C and a desirable rate performance (593 mAh·g−1 at 5.0 C), implying its great prospects in achieving superior electrochemical performances for advanced lithium sulfur batteries.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51672146 and 21805157) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2018BEM011).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Wenda Li, Dezhu Wang, Zihao Song, Zhijiang Gong, Xiaosong Guo, Jing Liu, Zhonghua Zhang & Guicun Li

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  1. Wenda Li
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  2. Dezhu Wang
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  3. Zihao Song
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  4. Zhijiang Gong
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Correspondence to Zhonghua Zhang or Guicun Li.

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Carbon confinement synthesis of interlayer-expanded and sulfur-enriched MoS2+x nanocoating on hollow carbon spheres for advanced Li-S batteries

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Li, W., Wang, D., Song, Z. et al. Carbon confinement synthesis of interlayer-expanded and sulfur-enriched MoS2+x nanocoating on hollow carbon spheres for advanced Li-S batteries. Nano Res. 12, 2908–2917 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2536-z

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