Addressing the Prominent Li+ Intercalation Process of Metal Sulfide Catalyst in Li‐S Batteries

Abstract Various catalysts are adopted to boost the conversion chemistry of Lithium sulfur (Li‐S) batteries, but most of them are electrochemical‐active in a working Li‐S cell, and the changes of their chemical state and the induced influence toward the Li‐S catalytic mechanism are unclear. Herein, a dynamic catalytic mechanism is proposed by the selection of Li + ‐interaction‐reversible VS 2 catalyst as a representative species to address this issue. The VS 2 catalyst with ultrastable Li + intercalation/deintercalation characteristics, fast charge transport capability, and active capacity contribution can provide a strong and dynamic chemisorption toward polysulfide (LiPS). The resulting Li‐S batteries exhibit excellent cyclability at 3 C with capacity attenuation of 81.23% over 250 cycles and good rate capability up to 8 C. Moreover, a new insight toward the dynamic catalytic changes induced by the prominent Li + intercalation process of metal sulfide is proposed, which can provide more opportunities for the evolutional design for Li‐S catalysts.