Bonding VSe₂ ultrafine nanocrystals on graphene toward advanced lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries have been attracting considerable research attention due to their high energy densities and low costs. However, one of their main challenges is the undesired shuttling of polysulfides, causing rapid capacity degradation. Herein, we report the first example of sulfiphilic VSe₂ ultrafine nanocrystals immobilized on nitrogen-doped graphene to modify the battery separator for alleviating the shuttling problem. VSe₂ nanocrystals provide numerous active sites for chemisorption of polysulfides as well as benefit the nucleation and growth of Li₂S. Furthermore, the kinetic reactions are accelerated which is confirmed by higher exchange current density and higher lithium ion diffusion coefficient. And the first-principles calculations further show that the exposed sulfiphilic planes of VSe₂ boost the redox of Li₂S. When used as separators within the lithium sulfur batteries, the cell indicates greatly enhanced electrochemical performances with excellent long cycling stability and exceptional rate capability up to 8 C. Moreover, it delivers a higher areal capacity of 4.04 mAh·cm^-2 as well as superior cycling stability with sulfur areal loading up to 6.1 mg·cm^-2. The present strategy can encourage us in engineering novel multifunctional separators for energy-storage devices.