Ni Anchored to Hydrogen-Substituted Graphdiyne for Lithium Sulfide Cathodes in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries
Louisa C. Greenburg, Xin Gao, Pu Zhang, X. R. Zheng, Jingyang Wang, Rafael A. Vilá, Yi Cui
Abstract
Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems due to their high theoretical energy density and the low cost of sulfur. However, slow conversion kinetics between the insulating S and lithium sulfide (Li 2 S) remains as a technical challenge. In this work, we report a catalyst featuring nickel (Ni) single atoms and clusters anchored to a porous hydrogen-substituted graphdiyne support (termed Ni@HGDY), which is incorporated in Li 2 S cathodes. The rapidly synthesized catalyst was found to enhance ionic and electronic conductivity, decrease the reaction overpotential, and promote more complete conversion between Li 2 S and sulfur. The addition of Ni@HGDY to commercial Li 2 S powder enabled a capacity of over 516 mAh g Li 2 S –1 at 1 C for over 125 cycles, whereas the control Li 2 S cathode managed to maintain just over 200 mAh g Li 2 S –1 . These findings highlight the efficacy of Ni as a metal catalyst and demonstrate the promise of HGDY in energy storage devices.