H.D. Shi, J.Q. Qin, P.F. Lu, C. Dong, J. He, X.J. Chou, P. Das, J.M. Wang, L.Z. Zhang, Z.-S. Wu*
Advanced Functional Materials, 2021, 31, 2102314.
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202102314 [PDF]
High-efficiency lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries depend on advanced electrode structure that can attain high sulfur utilization at lean-electrolyte andminimumamountoflithium. Herein, a twinbornholeyNb4N5-Nb2O5heterostructure was designed as a dual-functional host for both redox-kinetics-accelerated sulfur cathode anddendrite-inhibited lithium anodesimultaneouslyfor long-cycling and lean-electrolyteLi-S full batteries. Benefiting from the accelerative polysulfidesanchoring-diffusion-converting efficiencyof Nb4N5-Nb2O5, polysulfide-shutting was significantly alleviated. Meanwhile, the lithiophilic nature of holey Nb4N5-Nb2O5was applied as ion-redistributor for homogeneous Li-ion deposition. Taking advantage of these merits, the Li-S full batteries presented excellent electrochemical properties, including a minimum capacity decay rate of 0.025% per cycle, and a high areal capacity of 5.0 mAh cm-2at sulfur loading of 6.9 mg cm-2,correspondingtonegative to positive capacity ratio of 2.4:1 and electrolyte to sulfur ratio of 5.1 μL mg-1.Therefore, this work paves a new avenue for boosting high-performances Li-S batteries towards practical applications.