Heterostructured NiS<sub>2</sub>/ZnIn<sub>2</sub>S<sub>4</sub> Realizing Toroid-like Li<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> Deposition in Lithium–Oxygen Batteries with Low-Donor-Number Solvents
Anjun Hu, Weiqiang Lv, Tianyu Lei, Wei Chen, Yin Hu, Chaozhu Shu, Xianfu Wang, Lanxin Xue, Jianwen Huang, Xinchuan Du, Hongbo Wang, Kai Tang, Chuanhui Gong, Jun Zhu, Weidong He, Jianping Long, Jie Xiong
Abstract
The aprotic lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) battery has triggered tremendous efforts for advanced energy storage due to the high energy density. However, realizing toroid-like Li2O2 deposition in low-donor-number (DN) solvents is still the intractable obstruction. Herein, a heterostructured NiS2/ZnIn2S4 is elaborately developed and investigated as a promising catalyst to regulate the Li2O2 deposition in low-DN solvents. The as-developed NiS2/ZnIn2S4 promotes interfacial electron transfer, regulates the adsorption energy of the reaction intermediates, and accelerates O–O bond cleavage, which are convincingly evidenced experimentally and theoretically. As a result, the toroid-like Li2O2 product is achieved in a Li–O2 battery with low-DN solvents via the solvation-mediated pathway, which demonstrates superb cyclability over 490 cycles and a high output capacity of 3682 mA h g–1. The interface engineering of heterostructure catalysts offers more possibilities for the realization of toroid-like Li2O2 in low-DN solvents, holding great promise in achieving practical applications of Li–O2 batteries as well as enlightening the material design in catalytic systems.