Revealing the Selective Bifunctional Electrocatalytic Sites via In Situ Irradiated X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy for Lithium-Sulfur Battery.

ABSTRACT

The electrocatalysts are widely applied in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries to selectively accelerate the redox kinetics behavior of Li2 S, in which bifunctional active sites are established, thereby improving the electrochemical performance of the battery. Considering that the Li-S battery is a complex closed "black box" system, the internal redox reaction routes and active sites cannot be directly observed and monitored especially due to the distribution of potential active-site structures and their dynamic reconstruction. Empirical evidence demonstrates that traditional electrochemical test methods and theoretical calculations only probe the net result of multi-factors on an average and whole scale. Herein, based on the amorphous TiO2- x @Ni selective bifunctional model catalyst, these limitations are overcome by developing a system that couples the light field and in situ irradiated X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to synergistically convert the "black box" battery into a "see-through" battery for direct observation of the charge transportation, thus revealing that amorphous TiO2- x and Ni nanoparticle as the oxidation and reduction sites selectively promote the decomposition and nucleation of Li2 S, respectively. This work provides a universal method to achieve a deeper mechanistic understanding of bidirectional sulfur electrochemistry.