Developing A Polysulfide-Phobic Strategy to Restrain Shuttle Effect in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Inspired by hydrophobic interface, a novel design of polysulfide-phobic interface was proposed and developed to restrain shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur batteries. Two-dimensional VOPO4 sheets with adequate active sites were employed to immobilize the polysulfides through the formation of a V-S bond. Moreover, owing to the intrinsic Coulomb repulsion between polysulfide anions, the surface anchored with polysulfides can be further evolved into a polysulfide-phobic interface, which was demonstrated by the advanced time/space-resolved operando Raman evidences. In particular, by introducing the polysulfide-phobic surface design into separator fabrication, the lithium-sulfur battery performed a superior long-term cycling stability. This work expands a novel strategy to build a polysulfide-phobic surface by self-defense mechanism for suppressing polysulfides shuttle, which provides new insights and opportunities to develop advanced lithium-sulfur batteries.