Recently, the research group led by Professor Huang Xiao-xiao of School of Materials has made a breakthrough in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries performance improvement. Their academic paper "O-,N-Coordinated single Mn atoms accelerating polysulfides transformation in lithium-sulfur batteries" has been published in the international academic journal Energy Storage Materials (Impact factor 16.28, Top journal). HIT is the first unit. Liu Yanan, a doctoral student of Grade 2018 of the School of Materials, is the first author. Professor Huang Xiao-xiao, Lecturer Wei Zengyan and Professor Zhong Bo are the corresponding authors.
The adsorption and catalysis of single atoms of metals produce intermediate soluble polysulfide during the charging and discharging of lithium-sulfur batteries. The "shuttle effect" caused by polysulfide is one of the most difficult problems that restrict the electrochemical performance improvement of lithium-sulfur batteries. At present, the solutions mainly include physical isolation/chemical adsorption, regulation of intermediate reaction products and catalytic effect, among which catalytic effect is the most promising way to solve the "shuttle effect" of polysulfide in the electrochemical reaction process.
In order to solve the problem of "shuttle effect" of lithium polysulfide and develop high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries, Professor Huang Xiao-xiao led the research team to design and construct monoatomic manganese metal materials loaded with nitrogen-oxygen synergy on hollow porous carbon balls. Nitrogen, oxygen and manganese atoms have strong adsorption capacity on polysulfide, which can effectively catalyze the transformation of polysulfide during the process of charging and discharging, and effectively inhibit the "shuttle effect", so that the batteries have the characteristics of long cycle and stability.
