A High-Efficiency CoSe Electrocatalyst with Hierarchical Porous Polyhedron Nanoarchitecture for Accelerating Polysulfides Conversion in Li-S Batteries.

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are recognized as promising candidates for next-generation electrochemical energy storage systems owing to their high energy density and cost-effective raw materials. However, the sluggish multielectron sulfur redox reactions are the root cause of most of the issues for Li-S batteries. Herein, a high-efficiency CoSe electrocatalyst with hierarchical porous nanopolyhedron architecture (CS@HPP) derived from a metal-organic framework is presented as the sulfur host for Li-S batteries. The CS@HPP with high crystal quality and abundant reaction active sites can catalytically accelerate capture/diffusion of polysulfides and precipitation/decomposition of Li2 S. Thus, the CS@HPP sulfur cathode exhibits an excellent capacity of 1634.9 mAh g-1 , high rate performance, and a long cycle life with a low capacity decay of 0.04% per cycle over 1200 cycles. CoSe nanopolyhedrons are further fabricated on a carbon cloth framework (CC@CS@HPP) to unfold the electrocatalytic activity by its high electrical conductivity and large surface area. A freestanding CC@CS@HPP sulfur cathode with sulfur loading of 8.1 mg cm-2 delivers a high areal capacity of 8.1 mAh cm-2 under a lean electrolyte. This work will enlighten the rational design of structure-catalysis engineering of transition-metal-based nanomaterials for diverse applications.