@article{Wang2023, 
author = {Ziwei Wang and Yuwen Cheng and Shanying Wang and Jie Xu and Bo Peng and Dan Luo and Lianbo Ma},
title = {Promoting polysulfide conversions via cobalt single-atom catalyst for fast and durable lithium-sulfur batteries},
year = {2023},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {16},
number = {7},
pages = {9335-9343},
keywords = {lithium-sulfur batteries, polysulfide shuttling, sluggish redox kinetics, cobalt single-atom catalyst, catalytic capability},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-023-5557-6},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-023-5557-6},
abstract = {Although promising strategies have been developed to resolve the critical drawbacks of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, the intractable issues including undesirable shuttling of polysulfides and sluggish redox reaction kinetics have still been unresolved thoroughly. Herein, a cobalt single-atom (CoSA) catalyst comprising of atomic Co distributed homogeneously within nitrogen (N)-doped porous carbon (Co-NPC) nanosphere is constructed and utilized as a separator coating in Li-S batteries. The Co-NPC exposes abundant active sites participating in sulfur redox reactions, and remarkable catalytic activity boosting the rapid polysulfide conversions. As a result, Li-S batteries with Co-NPC coating layer realize significantly enhanced specific capacity (1295 mAh·g−1 at 0.2 C), rate capability (753 mAh·g−1 at 3.0 C), and long-life cyclic stability (601 mAh·g−1 after 500 cycles at 1.0 C). Increasing the areal sulfur loading to 6.2 mg·cm−2, an extremely high areal capacity of 7.92 mAh·cm−2 is achieved. Further in situ X-ray diffraction, density functional theory calculations, and secondary ion mass spectrometry confirm the high catalytic capability of CoSA towards reversible polysulfide conversion. This study supplies new insights for adopting single-atom catalyst to upgrade the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries.}
}