Deng Ding-Rong, Li Chen, Weng Jian-Chun, Fan Xiao-Hong, Chen Zhi-Jie, Yang Guang, Li Yi, Wu Qi-Hui, Zheng Ming-Sen, Dong Quan-Feng
College of Marine Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Energy Cleaning Utilization, Development, Cleaning Combustion and Energy Utilization Research Center of Fujian Province, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, Jimei University, Xiamen, Fujian 361021, China.
State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, iChem, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Oct 12;14(40):45414-45422. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c12841. Epub 2022 Oct 2.
Owning to its various advantages, the lithium-sulfur battery is one of the research hot spots for new energy storage systems. Diverse hollow structures with specific morphologies have been used as the sulfur host materials to adsorb or/and catalyze the polysulfides, and can in particular concurrently inhibit the volume expansion during electrochemical processes in lithium-sulfur batteries. However, hollow space with a large volume will restrict the performance of the cell under high sulfur area loading, which is a very important indicator for the practical applications of the lithium-sulfur battery. Here, we report a nano thin cage cobalt acid zinc (ZnCoO) with limited hollow space as the cathode catalyst for lithium-sulfur batteries, which greatly reduces the electrode volume occupied by the hollow structure. The hollow volume of these thin cages is much smaller than those of the normally reported hollow materials in the literatue. The electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur batteries with ZnCoO thin cages could greatly improve due to the unique structure and the synergistic adsorption/catalytic effect of Zn/Co sites, especially at an ultrahigh S area load. Under a high S loading of 8 mg cm, the cell could keep a reversible capacity of 600 mAh g after 500 cycles. Even at a sulfur loading of 10 mg cm, the cell still releases a discharge capacity of 1000 mAh g which is equivalent of an area capacity of 10 mAh cm. This work provides a feasible way to develop lithium sulfur batteries with a high area sulfur load. This idea provides a possible solution to develop a Li-S battery at high area S loading and move one step closer to the practical applications.
由于其诸多优点，锂硫电池是新型储能系统的研究热点之一。具有特定形态的多种中空结构已被用作硫主体材料来吸附或/和催化多硫化物，并且尤其能够在锂硫电池的电化学过程中同时抑制体积膨胀。然而，大体积的中空空间会限制高硫面积负载下电池的性能，而这是锂硫电池实际应用的一个非常重要的指标。在此，我们报道一种中空空间有限的纳米薄笼状钴酸锌（ZnCoO）作为锂硫电池的阴极催化剂，这大大减少了中空结构所占据的电极体积。这些薄笼的中空体积比文献中通常报道的中空材料的中空体积小得多。具有ZnCoO薄笼结构的锂硫电池的电化学性能由于其独特结构以及Zn/Co位点的协同吸附/催化作用而能够大大提高，尤其是在超高硫面积负载下。在8 mg cm²的高硫负载下，该电池在500次循环后仍可保持600 mAh g⁻¹的可逆容量。即使在10 mg cm²的硫负载下，该电池仍能释放出1000 mAh g⁻¹的放电容量，相当于10 mAh cm⁻²的面积容量。这项工作为开发高面积硫负载的锂硫电池提供了一种可行的方法。这一想法为开发高面积硫负载的锂硫电池提供了一种可能的解决方案，并向实际应用迈进了一步。
