Vanadium Intercalation into Niobium Disulfide to Enhance the Catalytic Activity for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Despite their high specific energy and great promise for next-generation energy storage, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries suffer from polysulfide shuttling, slow redox kinetics, and poor cyclability. Catalysts are needed to accelerate polysulfide conversion and suppress the shuttling effect. However, a lack of structure–activity relationships hinders the rational development of efficient catalysts. Herein, we studied the Nb–V–S system and proposed a V-intercalated NbS2 (Nb3VS6) catalyst for high-efficiency Li–S batteries. Structural analysis and modeling revealed that undercoordinated sulfur anions of [VS6] octahedra on the surface of Nb3VS6 may break the catalytic inertness of the basal planes, which are usually the primary exposed surfaces of many 2D layered disulfides. Using Nb3VS6 as the catalyst, the resultant Li–S batteries delivered high capacities of 1541 mAh g–1 at 0.1 C and 1037 mAh g–1 at 2 C and could retain 73.2% of the initial capacity after 1000 cycles. Such an intercalation-induced high activity offers an alternative approach to building better Li–S catalysts.