Metastable marcasite NiSe nanodendrites on carbon fiber clothes to suppress polysulfide shuttling for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 13; no. 39; pp. 16487 - 16498
• Main Authors: Wang, Jingwen, Cao, Shoufu, Yang, Likun, Zhang, Yan, Xing, Kun, Lu, Xiaoqing, Xu, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 14.10.2021
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d1nr04879a

The incorporation of catalytic components is a promising strategy to promote redox reaction kinetics and suppress polysulfide shuttling for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). In this work, metastable marcasite NiSe 2 nanodendrites grown on carbon fiber clothes ( m -NiSe 2 /CFC) were synthesized to improve chemical adsorption and electrocatalytic activity towards lithium polysulfides. The multifunctional m -NiSe 2 /CFC film was utilized as both the interlayer and the three-dimensional (3D) current collector in LSBs. In comparison with the stable pyrite NiSe 2 nanodendrite-covered CFC ( p -NiSe 2 /CFC) counterpart, the m -NiSe 2 /CFC film exhibits even stronger chemisorption, higher catalytic activity and faster reaction kinetics, thereby resulting in significantly improved lithium storage performance. The Al@S/rGO@ m -NiSe 2 /CFC cell has a high reversible capacity of 1646 mA h g −1 at 0.2C, a high Q L / Q H ratio of 3.00 at 0.2C, a high rate capability of 900 mA h g −1 at 4C, and an outstanding cyclic stability exhibiting a low capacity decay of 0.028% per cycle for 600 cycles at 4C. Moreover, a symmetrically sandwiched cathode of m -NiSe 2 /CFC@S/rGO@ m -NiSe 2 /CFC was designed for high sulfur loading LSBs (4.5 mg cm −2 ) with superior electrochemical performance of 3.73 mA h cm −2 after 100 cycles at 1C rate. Our work opens up a new opportunity to enhance the electrochemical performance of LSBs by phase engineering of NiSe 2 catalysts in sandwiched structural cathodes. Metastable m -NiSe 2 /CFC films are realized to promote chemisorption, accelerate reaction kinetics and suppress the shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides, resulting in high rate capability and superior cycling stability for lithium-sulfur batteries.