Porosity Engineering towards Nitrogen-Rich Carbon Host Enables Ultrahigh Capacity Sulfur Cathode for Room Temperature Potassium–Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Potassium–sulfur batteries (KSBs) are regarded as a promising large-scale energy storage technology, owing to the high theoretical specific capacity and intrinsically low cost. However, the commercialization of KSBs is hampered by the low sulfur utilization and notorious shuttle effect. Herein, we employ a porosity engineering strategy to design nitrogen-rich carbon foam as an efficient sulfur host. The tremendous micropores magnify the chemical interaction between sulfur species and the polar nitrogen functionalities decorated carbon surface, which significantly improve the sulfur utilization and conversion. Meanwhile, the abundant mesopores provide ample spaces, accommodating the large volume changes of sulfur upon reversible potassation. Resultantly, the constructed sulfur cathode delivers an ultrahigh initial reversible capacity of 1470 mAh g−1 (87.76% of theoretical capacity) and a superior rate capacity of 560 mAh g−1 at 2 C. Reaching the K2S phase in potassiation is the essential reason for obtaining the ultrahigh capacity. Nonetheless, systematic kinetics analyses demonstrate that the K2S involved depotassiation deteriorates the charge kinetics. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that the nitrogen-rich micropore surface facilitated the sulfur reduction for K2S but created a higher energy barrier for the K2S decomposition, which explained the discrepancy in kinetics modification effect produced by the porosity engineering.