Optimizing <i>s–p</i> Orbital Overlap Between Sodium Polysulfides and Single‐Atom Indium Catalyst for Efficient Sulfur Redox Reaction

P-block metal carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (C-SACs) have emerged as a promising candidate for high-performance room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries, due to their high atom utilization and unique electronic structure. However, the ambiguous electronic-level understanding of Na-dominant s-p hybridization between sodium polysulfides (NaPSs) and p-block C-SACs limits the precise control of coordination environment tuning and electro-catalytic activity manipulation. Here, s-p orbital overlap degree (OOD) between the s orbitals of Na in NaPSs and the p orbitals of p-block C-SACs is proposed as a descriptor for sulfur reduction reaction (SRR) and sulfur oxidation reaction (SOR). Compared to NG and NG-supported InN<sub>4</sub> (NG-InN<sub>4</sub>) SACs, the nitrogen-doped graphene-supported InN<sub>5</sub> (NG-InN<sub>5</sub>) SACs show the largest s-p OOD, demonstrating the weakest shuttle effect and the lowest reaction energy barriers in both SRR and SOR. Accordingly, the designed catalysts allow the Na-S pouch batteries to retain a high capacity of 490.7 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> at 2 A g<sup>-1</sup> with a Coulombic efficiency of 96 % at a low electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio of 4.5 μl mg<sup>-1</sup>. This work offers an s-p orbital overlap descriptor describing the interaction between NaPSs and p-orbital-dominated catalysts for high-performance RT Na-S batteries.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2024-12-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202422208
Citations
38
Primary Topic
Chemical Synthesis and Reactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.50
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article

Optimizing s–p Orbital Overlap Between Sodium Polysulfides and Single‐Atom Indium Catalyst for Efficient Sulfur Redox Reaction

Chunnian He, Wenbin Hu, Guangmin Zhou, Enzuo Liu et al.
38 citations
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Chemical Synthesis and Reactions
9.50
article

Optimizing s–p Orbital Overlap Between Sodium Polysulfides and Single‐Atom Indium Catalyst for Efficient Sulfur Redox Reaction

Chunnian He, Wenbin Hu, Guangmin Zhou, Enzuo Liu, Haichang Zhang, Tianshuai Wang, Jing Mao, Chunsheng Shi, Zhoujie Lao, Guangxuan Wu, Tongfeng Liu, Naiqin Zhao, Biao Chen, Yihao Cheng, Ningning Wu
article en
38 citations

Abstract

P-block metal carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (C-SACs) have emerged as a promising candidate for high-performance room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries, due to their high atom utilization and unique electronic structure. However, the ambiguous electronic-level understanding of Na-dominant s-p hybridization between sodium polysulfides (NaPSs) and p-block C-SACs limits the precise control of coordination environment tuning and electro-catalytic activity manipulation. Here, s-p orbital overlap degree (OOD) between the s orbitals of Na in NaPSs and the p orbitals of p-block C-SACs is proposed as a descriptor for sulfur reduction reaction (SRR) and sulfur oxidation reaction (SOR). Compared to NG and NG-supported InN<sub>4</sub> (NG-InN<sub>4</sub>) SACs, the nitrogen-doped graphene-supported InN<sub>5</sub> (NG-InN<sub>5</sub>) SACs show the largest s-p OOD, demonstrating the weakest shuttle effect and the lowest reaction energy barriers in both SRR and SOR. Accordingly, the designed catalysts allow the Na-S pouch batteries to retain a high capacity of 490.7 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> at 2 A g<sup>-1</sup> with a Coulombic efficiency of 96 % at a low electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio of 4.5 μl mg<sup>-1</sup>. This work offers an s-p orbital overlap descriptor describing the interaction between NaPSs and p-orbital-dominated catalysts for high-performance RT Na-S batteries.

Angewandte Chemie International EditionVol. 64(12)
Tianjin University of Technology and Education (CN), Tianjin University (CN), Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN), Hebei University of Technology (CN), Tsinghua–Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (CN), Tianjin Energy Investment Group (China) (CN), Tsinghua University (CN)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Chemical Synthesis and Reactions
9.50
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