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Published on: November 12, 2013
Bidirectional Tandem Electrocatalysis Manipulated Sulfur Speciation Pathway for High-Capacity and Stable Na-S Battery
Hong Zhang1,2, Bin Song3, Weiwei Zhang1,4,5
1Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, China.
Abstract:
The sluggish polysulfide redox kinetics and the uncontrollable sulfur speciation pathway, leading to serious shuttling effect and high activation barrier associated with sulfur cathode. We describe here the use of core-shell structured composite matrixes containing abundant catalytic sites for nearly fully reversible cycling of sulfur cathodes for Na-S batteries. The bidirectional tandem electrocatalysis provide successive reversible conversion of both long- and short-chain polysulfides, whereas Fe2 O3 accelerates Na2 S8 /Na2 S6 to Na2 S4 conversion and the redox-active Fe(CN)6 4- -doped polypyrrole shell catalyzes Na2 S4 reduction to Na2 S. The electrochemically reactive Na2 S can be readily charged back to sulfur with minimal overpotential. Simultaneously, stable cycling of Na-S pouch cell with a high reversible capacity of 696 mAh g-1 is also demonstrated. The bidirectional confined tandem catalysis renders the manipulation of sulfur redox electrochemistry for practical Na-S cells.
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