Mo2C-MoP heterostructure regulate the adsorption energy of electrocatalysts in high-performance Li-S batteries

Peng Wang; Haopeng Wang; Na Li; Jinfeng Sun; Bo Hong

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.107

Mo₂C-MoP heterostructure regulate the adsorption energy of electrocatalysts in high-performance Li-S batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Mar 15:658:497-505. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.107. Epub 2023 Dec 19.

Authors

Peng Wang¹, Haopeng Wang¹, Na Li², Jinfeng Sun¹, Bo Hong³

Affiliations

¹ Hebei Key Laboratory of Flexible Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050000, China.
² Hebei Key Laboratory of Flexible Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050000, China. Electronic address: linahuaxue@163.com.
³ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China. Electronic address: bop_hong@csu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38128193
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.12.107

Abstract

The cathodic polysulfides electrocatalyst, such as Mo₂C, offers a promising approach to mitigate the shuttling effect by providing strong polysulfide adsorption and catalyst abilities to improve the electrochemical performance of Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. However, according to the Sabatier principle, excessive adsorption of Mo₂C undermines the conversion of polysulfides. This undesirable effect can be mitigated by forming the heterostructure of Mo₂C-MoP. Even more importantly, the introduction of MoP can prevent the surface gelation of Mo₂C and expose more active sites. Consequently, the Li-S batteries with the Mo₂C-MoP sulfur host exhibit outstanding long-term cycling stability, showcasing a mere 0.035% capacity decay per cycle over 800 cycles at 1 C. This work on the balance between adsorption capacity and catalytic active of cathodic polysulfides electrocatalyst provides a new vision for realizing a high-performance Li-S batteries.

Keywords: Adsorption ability; Heterostructure; Lithium-sulfur batteries; Surface gelation.