High‐entropy stabilized oxides derived via a low‐temperature template route for high‐performance lithium‐sulfur batteries

It is a long-standing issue that the sluggish polysulfide conversion and adverse shuttling effects impede development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries with high energy density cycling stability, which necessitate exploration new electrocatalysts to facilitate practical applications Li-S batteries. Herein, single-phase high-entropy stabilized oxide (Ni0.2Co0.2Cu0.2Mg0.2Zn0.2)O (HEO850) successfully prepared through novel low-temperature annealing strategy from self-sacrificing metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) template then integrated into sulfur host, where it functions as both catalytic converter chemical inhibitor towards shuttle species. Furthermore, synergistic contribution randomly dispersed metal elements exposure affluent active sites enable encapsulation soluble polysulfides accelerate kinetics. The HEO850/S/KB cathode (KB: ketjen black; content: 70 wt.%) delivers substantially higher initial specific discharge capacity ~1244 mAh g−1 in comparison MEO/S/KB (MEO: medium entropy oxide; ~980 g−1), LEO/S/KB (LEO: low ~908 routine S/KB cathodes (~966 well retained at ~784 after 800 cycles 0.5 C decay rate ~0.043% per cycle. Moreover, when processed areal loading (~4.4 mg cm−2), resulting battery also performs well, ~1044 0.1 85% retention 100 cycles. This study highlights potential application HEOs enhancing performance provides synthesizing relatively temperature for various storage applications.