Accelerating Polysulfide Adsorption and Conversion from the Hybrid Phase of TiO2 and N-Doped Carbon toward High-Performance Li–S Batteries

The development of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries is highly dependent on overcoming the technical issues such as the shuttling behavior of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). In this work, we report a multifunctional layer composed of MXene/ZIF-8 (MXZ) nanohybrids to enhance the electrochemical performance of Li–S batteries. During the preparation of MXZ, ZIF-8 is hybridized with Ti3C2Tx MXene, where the ZIF-8 is decorated on the surface of Ti3C2Tx MXene by in situ growth. During thermal treatment, MXZ developed a hybrid phase of TiO2 (brookite and rutile) as well as N-doped carbon microstructures. Spectroscopic analysis confirms that the complementary contribution by the hybrid phase of TiO2, N-doped carbon microstructures, plays a critical role as electrocatalysts via efficient adsorption and conversion of LiPSs to fulfill high-performance Li–S batteries.