Efficient polysulfide anchor: brain coral-like WS2 nanosheets

Controlling the inherent polysulfide shuttle process has been the key research topic to solve the irreversible capacity loss problem of Li–S battery. By skillfully designing, hierarchical brain coral-like WS 2 nanosheets are synthesized. The novel structure is consisted of WS 2 nanosheets arrayed along the same crystal plane, which expose a large number of adsorption active sites and enhance the adsorption of polysulfides. At the same time, the multilayer sheet structure has a large specific surface area and increases the sulfur loading. The brain coral-like WS 2 /S cathode exhibits excellent electrochemical properties, which delivers an initial discharge specific capacity of 1308 mAh g −1 at 0.1 C. And when cycles at 2 C, the discharge specific capacity is maintained at 721 mAh g −1 after 500 cycles, together with a low decay of 0.06% per cycle.