Single-Atom Yttrium Engineering Janus Electrode for Rechargeable Na–S Batteries

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c07655
• Publication Date: 2022-10-10T13:06:40Z
• Authors: Erhuan Zhang; Xiang Hu; Lingzhe Meng; Min Qiu; Junxiang Chen; Yangjie Liu; Guiyu Liu; Zechao Zhuang; Xiaobo Zheng; Lirong Zheng; Yu Wang; Wei Tang; Zhouguang Lu; Jiatao Zhang; Zhenhai Wen; Dingsheng Wang; Yadong Li
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 0104 chemical sciences

The development of rechargeable Na-S batteries is very promising, thanks to their considerably high energy density, abundance of elements, and low costs and yet faces the issues of sluggish redox kinetics of S species and the polysulfide shuttle effect as well as Na dendrite growth. Following the theory-guided prediction, the rare-earth metal yttrium (Y)-N4 unit has been screened as a favorable Janus site for the chemical affinity of polysulfides and their electrocatalytic conversion, as well as reversible uniform Na deposition. To this end, we adopt a metal-organic framework (MOF) to prepare a single-atom hybrid with Y single atoms being incorporated into the nitrogen-doped rhombododecahedron carbon host (Y SAs/NC), which features favorable Janus properties of sodiophilicity and sulfiphilicity and thus presents highly desired electrochemical performance when used as a host of the sodium anode and the sulfur cathode of a Na-S full cell. Impressively, the Na-S full cell is capable of delivering a high capacity of 822 mAh g-1 and shows superdurable cyclability (97.5% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at a high current density of 5 A g-1). The proof-of-concept three-dimensional (3D) printed batteries and the Na-S pouch cell validate the potential practical applications of such Na-S batteries, shedding light on the development of promising Na-S full cells for future application in energy storage or power batteries.