Review on Cooperative Catalysis for Room-Temperature Sodium-Sulfur Batteries

The low cost and high energy density characteristics of room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries remarkably promote the development of sustainable large-scale energy-storage systems. However, there are serious problems with the shuttle effect and slow conversion kinetics caused by polysulfide dissolution in RT Na-S batteries, which can lead to decreased coulombic efficiency, rapid capacity degradation, and poor rate performance, hindering the practical application of RT Na-S batteries. Recently, numerous multimodal approaches have been attempted to address these issues, thereby promoting cycling stability and raising the energy density of RT Na-S batteries to a higher level. However, there is still a lack of a comprehensive and systematic summary of catalyst design based on the cooperative catalysis principle. In this review, the application advantages, operation mechanisms, and main challenges of RT Na-S batteries are first introduced. After that, the latest progress based on cooperative catalysts is elaborately summarized, exploring the corresponding work mechanisms and design principles of RT Na-S batteries. Finally, a summary of future research directions for developing high-performance RT Na-S batteries is presented.