li batteries

ion batteries

lithium sulfur

graphite

sulfur batteries

high energy density

reversible capacity

li-s batteries

anode material

Angewandte Chemie

The employment of catalytic materials is regarded as the most desirable strategy to cope with sluggish kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) transformation and severe shuttle effect within lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). Single-atom catalysts (SACs) with 100% atom-utilization possess competitive advantages to serve as both anchoring and electrocatalytic centers for LiPSs. However, it's still a great challenge due to the insufficiency of facile synthetic strategy and ambiguity of the structure-property relationships. Herein, a novel kind of tungsten (W) SAC immobilized on nitrogen-doped graphene (W/NG) with a unique W-O2N2-C coordination configuration and a high W loading of 8.6 wt% is first proposed via a self-template and self-reduction strategy. The special local coordination environment of W atom endows the W/NG with elevated LiPSs adsorption ability and catalytic activity evidenced by combination of experimental and theoretical studies. Impressively, LSBs equipped with W/NG modified separator manifest greatly improved electrochemical performances with high cycling stability over 1000 cycles and ultrahigh rate capability. Moreover, it indicates high areal capacity of 6.24 mAh cm-2 with robust cycling life at a high sulfur mass loading of 8.3 mg cm-2 .

Atomic Tungsten on Graphene with Unique Coordination Enabling Kinetically Boosted Lithium–Sulfur Batteries