A Ni/Ni2P heterostructure in modified porous carbon separator for boosting polysulfide catalytic conversion

The intrinsic sluggish conversion kinetics and severe shuttle effect in lithium—sulfur (Li-S) batteries are responsible for their poor reversible capacity cycling longevity, which have greatly hindered practical applications. To address these drawbacks, herein, we design construct a heterostructured Ni/Ni2P embedded mesoporous carbon nanosphere composite (Ni/Ni2P-MCN) boosting polysulfide catalytic Li-S batteries. Ni/Ni2P-MCN-modified separator could not only prevent the significantly through abundant chemical adsorptive sites, but also demonstrate superior reactivities of polysulfides. More importantly, conductive matrix with an exposed structure can serve as effective physical barrier to accommodate deposited insoluble Li2S. Consequently, cells exhibit boosted rate capability (431 mA h g−1 at 5 C) stability (a decay 0.031% per cycle after 1500 cycles). Even enhanced sulfur loading 4.2 mg cm−2, stable areal (about 3.5 cm−2) has been demonstrated. We envision that unique heterostructure porous offer great potential high-performance sustained energy storage devices.