Exceptional catalytic effects of black phosphorus quantum dots in shuttling-free lithium sulfur batteries

Zheng-Long Xu, Shenghuang Lin, Nicolas Onofrio, Limin Zhou, Fangyi Shi, Wei Lu, Kisuk Kang, Qiang Zhang () and Shu Ping Lau ()
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Zheng-Long Xu: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Shenghuang Lin: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Nicolas Onofrio: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Limin Zhou: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Fangyi Shi: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Wei Lu: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Kisuk Kang: Seoul National University
Qiang Zhang: Tsinghua University
Shu Ping Lau: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Lithium sulfur batteries with high energy densities are promising next-generation energy storage systems. However, shuttling and sluggish conversion of polysulfides to solid lithium sulfides limit the full utilization of active materials. Physical/chemical confinement is useful for anchoring polysulfides, but not effective for utilizing the blocked intermediates. Here, we employ black phosphorus quantum dots as electrocatalysts to overcome these issues. Both the experimental and theoretical results reveal that black phosphorus quantum dots effectively adsorb and catalyze polysulfide conversion. The activity is attributed to the numerous catalytically active sites on the edges of the quantum dots. In the presence of a small amount of black phosphorus quantum dots, the porous carbon/sulfur cathodes exhibit rapid reaction kinetics and no shuttling of polysulfides, enabling a low capacity fading rate (0.027% per cycle over 1000 cycles) and high areal capacities. Our findings demonstrate application of a metal-free quantum dot catalyst for high energy rechargeable batteries.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06629-9

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