Single Nickel Atoms on Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene Enabling Enhanced Kinetics of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Abstract Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have arousing interest because of their high theoretical energy density. However, they often suffer from sluggish conversion of lithium polysulfides (LiPS) during the charge/discharge process. Single nickel (Ni) atoms on nitrogen‐doped graphene (Ni@NG) with Ni–N 4 structure are prepared and introduced to modify the separators of Li–S batteries. The oxidized Ni sites of the Ni–N 4 structure act as polysulfide traps, efficiently accommodating polysulfide ion electrons by forming strong S x 2− ⋅⋅⋅NiN bonding. Additionally, charge transfer between the LiPS and oxidized Ni sites endows the LiPS on Ni@NG with low free energy and decomposition energy barrier in an…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 51822205, 21573116, 21875121
• MO
  Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China

  Award: B12015
• MO
  Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

  Award: 2017YFA0206701
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2018M630709