Tantalum-Based Electrocatalyst for Polysulfide Catalysis and Retention for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries represent one of the most promising contenders in the “beyond lithium-ion batteries” energy-storage arena to support the ever-expanding electrical market. However, the practical application of Li-S batteries is still discouraged from several issues on the cathode side including the polysulfide shuttling behavior, sluggish sulfur redox kinetics, and volume variation during battery operation. This work presents a potent strategy to solve these challenges by developing a new tantalum-based electrocatalyst for the Li-S system. The “ship in a bottle” nanostructure of electrocatalyst featuring efficient crystallinity tuning and tailored oxygen defects enables a superior catalytic activity and stability for sulfur redox reactions, which lead to a significant increase in Li-S battery performance at practically relevant sulfur loadings and electrolyte content.