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Vol. 14 (2022)

Construction of Ultrathin Layered MXene-TiN Heterostructure Enabling Favorable Catalytic Ability for High-Areal-Capacity Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00935-0
Hao Wang
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Zhe Cui
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Shu‑Ang He
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Jinqi Zhu
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Wei Luo
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Qian Liu
Department of Physics, College of Science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China
Rujia Zou
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Rujia Zou

rjzou@dhu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 14 (2022), Article Number: 189

Abstract

Catalysis has been regarded as an effective strategy to mitigate sluggish reaction kinetics and serious shuttle effect of Li–S batteries. Herein, a spherical structure consists of ultrathin layered Ti3C2Tx-TiN heterostructures (MX-TiN) through in-situ nitridation method is reported. Through controllable nitridation, highly conductive TiN layer grew on the surface and close coupled with interior MXene to form unique 2D heterostructures. The ultrathin heterostructure with only several nanometers in thickness enables outstanding ability to shorten electrons diffusion distance during electrochemical reactions and enlarge active surface with abundant adsorptive and catalytic sites. Moreover, the (001) surface of TiN is dominated by metallic Ti–3d states, which ensures fast transmitting electrons from high conductive MX-TiN matrix and thus guarantees efficient catalytic performance. Calculations and experiments demonstrate that polysulfides are strongly immobilized on MX-TiN, meanwhile the bidirectional reaction kinetics are catalytically enhanced by reducing the conversion barrier between liquid LiPSs and solid Li2S2/Li2S. As a result, the S/MX-TiN cathode achieves excellent long-term cyclability with extremely low-capacity fading rate of 0.022% over 1000 cycles and remarkable areal capacity of 8.27 mAh cm−2 at high sulfur loading and lean electrolytes.


Highlights:


1 An in-situ strategy to synthesize ultrathin two-dimensional MXene-TiN heterostructures and the ultrathin structure extremely shortens the electrons diffusion distance from catalysts to active sulfur species.
2 The heterostructure exhibits superior electronic structures to strongly capture the polysulfides and enhance bidirectional electrocatalytic ability between LiPSs and Li2S.
3 The advanced cathode achieves an excellent long-term cyclability with an extremely low-capacity fading rate of 0.022% over 1000 cycles and a remarkable areal capacity of 8.27 mAh cm−2 at high sulfur loading of 10.16 mg cm−2.

Keywords

Li–S batteries Ultrathin 2D structures Electrochemical catalysis MXenes Ti3C2Tx-TiN
Wang, Hao, Zhe Cui, Shu‑Ang He, Jinqi Zhu, Wei Luo, Qian Liu, and Rujia Zou. 2022. “Construction of Ultrathin Layered MXene-TiN Heterostructure Enabling Favorable Catalytic Ability for High-Areal-Capacity Lithium–Sulfur Batteries”. Nano-Micro Letters 14 (September):189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00935-0.
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