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Research Article

Bonding VSe2 ultrafine nanocrystals on graphene toward advanced lithium-sulfur batteries

Wenzhi Tian1, Baojuan Xi1, Yu Gu1, Qiang Fu1, Zhenyu Feng1, Jinkui Feng2, Shenglin Xiong1( )
Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution & Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
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Abstract

Lithium-sulfur batteries have been attracting considerable research attention due to their high energy densities and low costs. However, one of their main challenges is the undesired shuttling of polysulfides, causing rapid capacity degradation. Herein, we report the first example of sulfiphilic VSe2 ultrafine nanocrystals immobilized on nitrogen-doped graphene to modify the battery separator for alleviating the shuttling problem. VSe2 nanocrystals provide numerous active sites for chemisorption of polysulfides as well as benefit the nucleation and growth of Li2S. Furthermore, the kinetic reactions are accelerated which is confirmed by higher exchange current density and higher lithium ion diffusion coefficient. And the first-principles calculations further show that the exposed sulfiphilic planes of VSe2 boost the redox of Li2S. When used as separators within the lithium sulfur batteries, the cell indicates greatly enhanced electrochemical performances with excellent long cycling stability and exceptional rate capability up to 8 C. Moreover, it delivers a higher areal capacity of 4.04 mAh·cm-2 as well as superior cycling stability with sulfur areal loading up to 6.1 mg·cm-2. The present strategy can encourage us in engineering novel multifunctional separators for energy-storage devices.

Keywords

sulfiphilic VSe2lithium-sulfur batteriesnucleation and growth of Li2Spolysulfide electrocatalysisshuttle effect

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 10,
October 2020
Pages 2673-2682
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2909-3
Cite this article:
Tian W, Xi B, Gu Y, et al. Bonding VSe2 ultrafine nanocrystals on graphene toward advanced lithium-sulfur batteries. Nano Research, 2020, 13(10): 2673-2682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2909-3
Topics:
CalculationsDoping (additives)GrapheneIon batteriesIon exchangeLithiumLithium compoundsNanocrystalsPolysulfidesSelenium compoundsSulfur compoundsVanadium compounds

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Received: 07 April 2020
Revised: 28 May 2020
Accepted: 30 May 2020
Published: 01 July 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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