Synergy of single atoms and sulfur vacancies for advanced polysulfide–iodide redox flow battery

作者：Zhigui Wang, Guolong Lu, Tianran Wei, Ge Meng, Haoxiang Cai, Yanhong Feng, Ke Chu, Jun Luo, Guangzhi Hu, Dingsheng Wang, Xijun Liu · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-025-58273-9 · 被引用次数：65 · 研究领域：Advanced battery technologies research、Perovskite Materials and Applications、Gas Sensing Nanomaterials and Sensors

Aqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs) incorporating polysulfide/iodide chemistries have received considerable attention due to their safety, high scalability, and cost-effectiveness. However, the sluggish redox kinetics restricted their output energy efficiency and power density. Here we designed a defective MoS2 nanosheets supported Co single-atom catalyst that accelerated the transformation of S2−/Sx2− and I−/I3− redox couples, hence endow the derived polysulfide–iodide RFB with an initial energy efficiency (EE) of 87.9% and an overpotential of 113 mV with an average EE 80.4% at 20 mA cm−2 and 50% state-of-charge for 50 cycles, and a maximal power density of 95.7 mW cm−2 for an extended cycling life exceeding 850 cycles at 10 mA cm−2 and 10% state-of-charge. In situ experimental and theoretical analyses elucidate that Co single atoms induce the generation of abundant sulfur vacancies in MoS2 via a phase transition process, which synergistically contributed to the enhanced adsorption of reactants and key reaction intermediates and improved charge transfer, resulting in the enhanced RFB performance. Polysulfide-iodide redox flow batteries attract great attention, while restricting by the limited energy efficiency and power density. Here, authors introduce single Co atoms into the defective MoS2, endowing a fast transformation of S2−/Sx 2− and I−/I3 −, thus leading to good battery performance.