Spherical Templating of CoSe2 Nanoparticle-Decorated MXenes for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Spherical Templating of CoSe2 Nanoparticle-Decorated MXenes for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Nano Letters

10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03279

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03279

Wei Ying Lieu, Daliang Fang, Yuanjian Li, Xue Liang Li, Congjian Lin, Anupma Thakur, Brian C. Wyatt, Shengnan Sun, Tanmay Ghosh, Babak Anasori, Man-Fai Ng, Hui Ying Yang, Zhi Wei Seh

Mechanical Engineering, General Materials Science, General Chemistry, Condensed Matter Physics, Bioengineering

31 October 2022

Lieu, W. Y., Fang, D., Li, Y., Li, X. L., Lin, C., Thakur, A., Wyatt, B. C., Sun, S., Ghosh, T., Anasori, B., Ng, M.-F., Yang, H. Y., & Seh, Z. W. (2022). Spherical Templating of CoSe2 Nanoparticle-Decorated MXenes for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries. Nano Letters, 22(21), 8679–8687. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03279

Two-dimensional MXenes produce competitive performances when incorporated into lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs), solving key problems such as the poor electronic conductivity of sulfur and dissolution of its polysulfide intermediates. However, MXene nanosheets are known to easily aggregate and restack during electrode fabrication, filtration, or water removal, limiting their practical applicability. Furthermore, in complex electrocatalytic reactions like the multistep sulfur reduction process in LSBs, MXene alone is insufficient to ensure an optimal reaction pathway. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time a loose templating of sulfur spheres using Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets decorated with polymorphic CoSe2 nanoparticles. This work shows that the templating of sulfur spheres using nanoparticle-decorated MXene nanosheets can prevent nanosheet aggregation and exert a strong electrocatalytic effect, thereby enabling improved reaction kinetics and battery performance. The S@MXene-CoSe2 cathode demonstrated a long cycle life of 1000 cycles and a low capacity decay rate of 0.06% per cycle in LSBs.

Publisher Copyright

This research is supported by core funding from: SERC
Grant Reference no. : NA

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE) - Academic Research Fund Tier 2
Grant Reference no. : MOE2019-T2-1-181

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Nano Letters, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03279

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