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Valence‐adaptable Ni/Co catalysis for high‐rate sodium–sulfur batteries with wide‐temperature operation from −20 to 50 °C

journal contribution
posted on 2025-11-04, 16:24 authored by Yuxuan Gao, Ronghui Liu, Xiaoxing Ke, Mingzhe Li, Tingjiao Xiao, Yuzhen Lv, Shubin Yang, Yu Zhang, Wen-Feng LinWen-Feng Lin, Wei Zhou
<p dir="ltr">To address the challenges posed by diverse global climates, the development of wide‐temperature‐operable batteries is essential. Here Ti 3 C 2 O x is used as inner sheets to support the growth of NiCo‐LDH wrinkles, forming a unique cavity‐structured sulfur host. The resulting cathode demonstrates state‐of‐the‐art high‐rate performance, delivering a remarkable capacity of 1130.7 mAh g −1 at 5 A g −1 over 1200 cycles. It also exhibits outstanding wide‐temperature operation, maintaining capacities of 1150.0 mAh g −1 at 50 °C (5 A g −1 ) and 969.1 mAh g −1 at −20 °C (1 A g −1 ) after 600 cycles. This exceptional performance across temperatures is attributed to the reversible redox behavior of the Ni 2.32+ ↔ Ni 2.54+ and Co 2.46+ ↔ Co 2.84+ redox couples. These transition metals from NiCo‐LDH act as electron donors during discharge (from S 8 to Na 2 S) and as electron acceptors during charge (from Na 2 S to S 8 ), thereby accelerating electron transfer and enabling efficient polysulfide conversion even at low temperatures. Furthermore, adsorption experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that NiCo‐LDH preferentially adsorbs short‐chain polysulfides (Na 2 S/Na 2 S 2 ), while Ti 3 C 2 O x exhibits stronger affinity for long‐chain polysulfides (Na 2 S 4 /Na 2 S 6 ). This synergistic adsorption behavior enhances polysulfide retention and mitigates the shuttle effect, contributing to excellent performance stability even at high temperatures.</p>

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China. Grant Number: 2022YFB3807200

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Published in

Advanced Materials

Publisher

Wiley

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Wiley

Publisher statement

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Y. Gao, R. Liu, X. Ke, et al. “ Valence-Adaptable Ni/Co Catalysis for High-Rate Sodium–Sulfur Batteries with Wide-Temperature Operation from −20 to 50 °C.” Adv. Mater. (2025): e11862. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202511862, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202511862. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.

Publication date

2025-11-02

Copyright date

2025

ISSN

0935-9648

eISSN

1521-4095

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Wen Feng Lin. Deposit date: 3 November 2025

Article number

e11862

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