Defect-Rich W/Mo-Doped V2O5 Microspheres as a Catalytic Host To Boost Sulfur Redox Kinetics for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Fanjun Liu; Yanting Zhu; Liequan Liu; Ze Zhang; Ji Yu; Jianxin Cai; Zhenyu Yang

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00213

Defect-Rich W/Mo-Doped V₂O₅ Microspheres as a Catalytic Host To Boost Sulfur Redox Kinetics for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Inorg Chem. 2023 Apr 3;62(13):5219-5228. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00213. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Fanjun Liu¹, Yanting Zhu¹, Liequan Liu¹, Ze Zhang¹, Ji Yu¹, Jianxin Cai¹, Zhenyu Yang¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Environment and Energy Catalysis, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.

PMID: 36942652
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00213

Abstract

It is very important to develop ideal electrocatalysts to accelerate the sulfur redox kinetics in both the discharging and charging processes for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, defect-rich cation-doped V₂O₅ yolk-shell microspheres are reported as a catalytic host of sulfur. The doping of W or Mo cations induces no impurities, broadens the lattice spacing of V₂O₅, and enriches the oxygen vacancy defects. Thus, the doped V₂O₅ host affords sufficient active sites for chemically anchoring polysulfides and promising catalytic effect on the mutual conversion between different sulfur intermediates. As a result, the S/W-V₂O₅ cathode delivers a discharging capacity of 1143.3 mA g^-1 at an initial rate of 0.3 C and 681.8 mA g^-1 at 5 C. Even under a sulfur loading of up to 5.5 mg cm^-2 and a minimal electrolyte/sulfur ratio of 6 μL mg^-1, the S/W-V₂O₅ cathode could still achieve good sulfur utilization and dependable cycle stability. Thus, this work offers an electrocatalytic host based on the cation doping strategy to greatly enhance the sulfur redox kinetics for high-performance Li-S batteries.