Hollow carbon nanospheres coated by δ-MnO2 as S host to enhance the catalytic conversion of polysulfides in Li-S batteries

• A flower-like MnO 2 wrapped the hollow carbon as S host in Li-S Batteries. • The MnO 2 promoted the redox reaction kinetics process in Li-S batteries. • The long cycle performance with the average capacity attenuation per cycle of 0.039% is achieve. • The MnO 2 modified hollow carbon delivers a higher diffusion coefficient of D Li + . The sluggish redox reactions and shuttle effect of polysulfides in lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery are the main challenges for long-term cycle performance. A delicate design of hydrangea-like MnO 2 grown on the surface of hollow carbon nanospheres can enhance the anchoring and catalytic transformation of Li 2 S n (4 ≤ n ≤ 8) due to the hybrid architecture, in which the inner hollow architecture can buffer the volume changes during lithiation process and the outer hydrangea-like MnO 2 can provide a physical barrier and chemical catalytic channels for electron/ion transfer to restrain the shuttle effect. Consequently, the MnO 2 -HC-S cathode achieves a high initial specific capacity of 899 mAh −1 at 0.2 C with S loading of 1.8 mg cm −2 . Such MnO 2 -HC-S electrode also delivers an ultralow specific capacity loss of 0.039% per cycle at 0.5 C after 1000 cycles. This hybrid cathode combining the polar metal compounds with the nonpolar nano material can provide a special architecture to boost the anchoring of sulfur on the electrode and also propose a simple method for future commercialization of high-performance Li-S batteries.