Enabling flexible solid-state Zn batteries via tailoring sulfur deficiency in bimetallic sulfide nanotube arrays

Abstract The ability to create advanced cathode nanomaterials with greatly enhanced energy density for rechargeable Zn batteries remains a grand challenge. Herein, we craft bimetallic NiCo2S4-x with tunable sulfur deficiency as effective cathode materials for Zn batteries with large capacity, high rate capability and outstanding cycle stability. Notably, the sulfur vacancies can be judiciously tailored to increase the electrical conductivity and number of active sites for electrochemical reaction. The resulting sulfur-deficient NiCo2S4-x nanotube arrays on carbon cloth (denoted sd-NiCo2S4-x@CC) present high capacities of 298.3 and 175.7 mAh g−1 at 0.5 and 5 A g−1, respectively, which outperform the CC-support-free NiCo2S4-x nanotube and NiCo2O4 nanowire counterparts. Mechanistic study reveals the partial dissolution of S elements in sd-NiCo2S4-x@CC electrodes, which has not been observed in sulfide-based Zn batteries. The redox reaction of sd-NiCo2S4-x@CC involves the formation of NiS4-x-2yOH, CoSyOH, and CoSyO during charging and S doped NiO and CoO during discharging. The residual S-doping effect in bimetallic electrode materials is key to sustain high reactivity and cycle stability. Furthermore, a flexible solid-state sd-NiCo2S4-x@CC//Zn@CC battery is assembled using sodium polyacrylate hydrogel electrolyte, displaying an unprecedented cyclic durability of 84.7% after 1500 cycles at 5 A g−1. As such, the deficiency (e.g., S, O, P, etc.) tailoring represents a robust strategy to yield high performance electrode materials for energy storage devices.