High-power lithium-selenium batteries enabled by atomic cobalt electrocatalyst in hollow carbon cathode

Hao Tian; Huajun Tian; Shijian Wang; Shuangming Chen; Fan Zhang; Li Song; Hao Liu; Jian Liu; Guoxiu Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18820-y

High-power lithium-selenium batteries enabled by atomic cobalt electrocatalyst in hollow carbon cathode

Nat Commun. 2020 Oct 6;11(1):5025. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18820-y.

Authors

Hao Tian^#^{1

2}, Huajun Tian^#¹, Shijian Wang¹, Shuangming Chen³, Fan Zhang¹, Li Song⁴, Hao Liu⁵, Jian Liu^{6

7}, Guoxiu Wang⁸

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Science, Centre for Clean Energy Technology, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia.
² State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, 116023, Dalian, China.
³ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, CAS Centre for Excellence in Nanoscience, University of Science and Technology of China, 230029, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁴ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, CAS Centre for Excellence in Nanoscience, University of Science and Technology of China, 230029, Hefei, Anhui, China. [email protected].
⁵ Faculty of Science, Centre for Clean Energy Technology, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia. [email protected].
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, 116023, Dalian, China. [email protected].
⁷ DICP-Surrey Joint Centre for Future Materials, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, and Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, Guilford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK. [email protected].
⁸ Faculty of Science, Centre for Clean Energy Technology, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Selenium cathodes have attracted considerable attention due to high electronic conductivity and volumetric capacity comparable to sulphur cathodes. However, practical development of lithium-selenium batteries has been hindered by the low selenium reaction activity with lithium, high volume changes and rapid capacity fading caused by the shuttle effect of polyselenides. Recently, single atom catalysts have attracted extensive interests in electrochemical energy conversion and storage because of unique electronic and structural properties, maximum atom-utilization efficiency, and outstanding catalytic performances. In this work, we developed a facile route to synthesize cobalt single atoms/nitrogen-doped hollow porous carbon (Co_SA-HC). The cobalt single atoms can activate selenium reactivity and immobilize selenium and polyselenides. The as-prepared selenium-carbon (Se@Co_SA-HC) cathodes deliver a high discharge capacity, a superior rate capability, and excellent cycling stability with a Coulombic efficiency of ~100%. This work could open an avenue for achieving long cycle life and high-power lithium-selenium batteries.