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Vol. 13 (2021)

Efficient Catalytic Conversion of Polysulfides by Biomimetic Design of “Branch-Leaf” Electrode for High-Energy Sodium–Sulfur Batteries

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00563-6
Wenyan Du
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Kangqi Shen
Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100193, People’s Republic of China
Yuruo Qi
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Wei Gao
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Mengli Tao
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Guangyuan Du
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Shu‑juan Bao
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China
Mingyang Chen
Center for Green Innovation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China
Yuming Chen
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, People’s Republic of China
Maowen Xu
Key Laboratory of Luminescence Analysis and Molecular Sensing (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Maowen Xu

xumaowen@swu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 13 (2021), Article Number: 50

Abstract

Rechargeable room temperature sodium–sulfur (RT Na–S) batteries are seriously limited by low sulfur utilization and sluggish electrochemical reaction activity of polysulfide intermediates. Herein, a 3D “branch-leaf” biomimetic design proposed for high performance Na–S batteries, where the leaves constructed from Co nanoparticles on carbon nanofibers (CNF) are fully to expose the active sites of Co. The CNF network acts as conductive “branches” to ensure adequate electron and electrolyte supply for the Co leaves. As an effective electrocatalytic battery system, the 3D “branch-leaf” conductive network with abundant active sites and voids can effectively trap polysulfides and provide plentiful electron/ions pathways for electrochemical reaction. DFT calculation reveals that the Co nanoparticles can induce the formation of a unique Co–S–Na molecular layer on the Co surface, which can enable a fast reduction reaction of the polysulfides. Therefore, the prepared “branch-leaf” CNF-L@Co/S electrode exhibits a high initial specific capacity of 1201 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and superior rate performance.


Highlights:


1 3D “branch-leaf” biomimetic design is proposed for high-performance Na-S batteries.
2 The conductive “branch” can ensure adequate electron and electrolyte supply with the “leaf” can catalyze the conversion of polysulfides.
3 DFT calculation reveals that the Co nanoparticles can enable fast reduction reaction of the polysulfides;
4 The prepared CNF-L@Co/S electrode exhibits a high initial specific capacity of 1201 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and superior rate performance.

Keywords

Co nanoparticles Sodium–sulfur batteries Branch-leaf, biomimetic
Du, Wenyan, Kangqi Shen, Yuruo Qi, Wei Gao, Mengli Tao, Guangyuan Du, Shu‑juan Bao, Mingyang Chen, Yuming Chen, and Maowen Xu. 2021. “Efficient Catalytic Conversion of Polysulfides by Biomimetic Design of ‘Branch-Leaf’ Electrode for High-Energy Sodium–Sulfur Batteries”. Nano-Micro Letters 13 (January):50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00563-6.
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