Accelerated Reversible Conversion of Li2S2 to Li2S by Spidroin Regulated Li+ Flux for High‐performance Li‐Sulfur Batteries

• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202417624
• Publication Date: 2024-09-30T12:59:05Z
• Authors: Mingliang Liu; Zhen Wu; Shujun Liu; Tong Guo; Peng Chen; Xuan Cao; Shencheng Pan; Tianhong Zhou; Lea Pompizii; Murad Najafov; Ali Coskun; Yongsheng Fu
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

AbstractRegulating the transformation of sulfur species is the key to improving the electrochemical performance of lithium‐sulfur (Li−S) batteries, in particular, to accelerate the reversible conversion between solid phase Li2S2 and Li2S. Herein, we introduced Spidroin, which is a main protein in spider silk, as a dual functional separator coating in Li−S batteries to effectively adsorb polysulfides via the sequence of amino acids in its primary structure and regulate Li+ flux through the β‐sheet of its secondary structure, thus accelerating the reversible transformation between Li2S2 and Li2S. Spidroin‐based Li−S cells exhibited an exceptional electrochemical performance with a high specific capacity of 744.1 mAh g−1 at 5 C and a high areal capacity of 7.5 mAh cm−2 at a low electrolyte‐to‐sulfur (E/S) ratio of 6 μL mgs−1 and a sulfur loading of 8.6 mgs cm−2.