Chlorine bridge bond-enabled binuclear copper complex for electrocatalyzing lithium-sulfur reactions.

Yang, Qin; Cai, Jinyan; Li, Guanwu; Gao, Runhua; Han, Zhiyuan; Han, Jingjing; Liu, Dong; Song, Lixian et al. · Nat Commun · 2024

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Engineering atom-scale sites are crucial to the mitigation of polysulfide shuttle, promotion of sulfur redox, and regulation of lithium deposition in lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, a homonuclear copper dual-atom catalyst with a proximal distance of 3.5 Å is developed for lithium-sulfur batteries, wherein two adjacent copper atoms are linked by a pair of symmetrical chlorine bridge bonds. Benefiting from the proximal copper atoms and their unique coordination, the copper dual-atom catalyst with the increased active interface concentration synchronously guide the evolutions of sulfur and lithium species. Such a delicate design breaks through the activity limitation of mononuclear metal center and represents a catalyst concept for lithium-sulfur battery realm. Therefore, a remarkable areal capacity of 7.8 mA h cm<sup>-2</sup> is achieved under the scenario of sulfur content of 60 wt.%, mass loading of 7.7 mg cm<sup>-2</sup> and electrolyte dosage of 4.8 μL mg<sup>-1</sup>.