Synergistic Effect of Adsorption and Electrocatalysis of Zno@Mno2 Pcnfs for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Catalytic conversion is a new strategy to mitigate the shuttle effects of lithium-sulfur batteries, but the catalyst must play an effective role in both oxidation and reduction processes. In this paper, a lotus root-like ZnO@MnO2 PCNFs with a built-in electric field are proposed as cathodes for lithium-sulfur batteries. Due to the synergistic effect of both components, ZnO@MnO2 PCNFs demonstrated outstanding bidirectional catalytic performance, with ZnO primarily enhancing catalysis and MnO2 regulating adsorption. The ZnO@MnO2 PCNFs exhibit higher initial capacity (1582 mAh g- 1 at 0.1 C), and longer cycle life (2000 cycles with 0.023 % decay per period at 2 C). Even under high S loading of 8.32 mg cm- 2 and a low electrolyte to sulfur ratio is about 4.8 mu L mg- 1 , the cell with ZnO@MnO2 PCNFs shows a discharge capacity of 688.6 mAh g- 1 at 0.2 C, and maintained at 420.9 mAh g- 1 after 100 cycles. This approach has shown promise in improving the efficiency and cycling stability of Li-S batteries, making them more viable for practical applications.