Lewis Acid–Base Interactions between Polysulfides and Metal Organic Framework in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery is one of the most promising energy storage systems because of its high specific capacity of 1675 mAh g(-1) based on sulfur. However, the rapid capacity degradation, mainly caused by polysulfide dissolution, remains a significant challenge prior to practical applications. This work demonstrates that a novel Ni-based metal organic framework (Ni-MOF), Ni6(BTB)4(BP)3 (BTB = benzene-1,3,5-tribenzoate and BP = 4,4'-bipyridyl), can remarkably immobilize polysulfides within the cathode structure through physical and chemical interactions at molecular level. The capacity retention achieves up to 89% after 100 cycles at 0.1 C. The excellent performance is attributed to the synergistic…