Surface and interface engineering of Zn/N-regulated hierarchical porous carbon host featuring Co-based nanodomains for accelerated redox kinetics in Li-S batteries

A Zn-Co bimetallic ZIF-derived N-doped porous carbon with CNT network is constructed. • Acid etching tailors hierarchical porosity and exposes catalytic metal sites. • The conductive CNT framework accelerates electron/ion transport. • Strong polysulfide immobilization and rapid redox kinetics are achieved. • High capacity and stable cycling are maintained under lean electrolyte. Efficient sulfur hosts with strong polysulfide confinement and fast redox kinetics are essential for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, a Zn-Co bimetallic ZIF-derived multifunctional porous carbon with in-situ grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is constructed via controlled carbonization followed by acid etching. The resulting ZIFCA material features a hierarchical porous architecture with Zn/N-derived polar sites, a conductive CNT network, and Co-based catalytic nanodomains coupled with defect-rich carbon interfaces. These structural characteristics synergistically enhance polysulfide adsorption and accelerate sulfur redox conversion, thereby suppressing the shuttle effect and improving reaction kinetics. As a sulfur host, ZIFCA/S delivers a reversible capacity of 1035 mAh g −1 after 200 cycles at 1.0C, and retains around 700 mAh g −1 at 5C. Notably, under lean electrolyte conditions (E/S = 5.7 μL mg −1 ), ZIFCA/S maintains a capacity of 903 mAh g −1 after 110 cycles with an areal capacity of about 2.79 mAh cm −2 . This work highlights the effectiveness of integrating conductive and catalytic functionalities in ZIF-derived carbon frameworks for advanced Li-S batteries. Download: Download high-res image (162KB) Download: Download full-size image