Congratulations to Dr. Shuping Li's paper being accepted by the international authoritative journal "Electrochimica Acta"! The topic of the thesis is "Cobalt-embedded carbon nanofiber as electrocatalyst for polysulfide redox reaction in lithium sulfur batteries".

The effective redox conversion between polysulfide and sulfur or lithium sulfide has a significant impact on the electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, especially under high sulfur loads. Here, the easy-to-manufacture cobalt embedded carbon nanofiber (Co-CNF) is designed as the sulfur cathode current collector. The results show that Co-CNF promotes the transfer of electrons and lithium ions, thereby promoting rapid redox conversion and reducing the dissolution and shuttle of polysulfides. In addition, the intercalated cobalt metal facilitates the uniform nucleation of lithium sulfide on the surface of the carbon nanofibers, reduces polarization and promotes high specific capacity. Co-CNF with a sulfur loading of 4.6 mg cm-2 released 970 mA h g-1 (4.5 mA h cm-2) at 0.1 C and 670 mA h g-1 at 1 C. Even if the sulfur load is as high as 9.6 mg cm-2, it still has a reversible capacity of 730 mA h g-1 (7 mA h cm-2). The decay rate of Co-CNF/Li2S6 cathode is 0.06% per circle after 300 cycles. This work demonstrates an effective cobalt metal catalyst and a simple but useful sulfur cathode designed for high-performance Li-S batteries.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013468619303445?via%3Dihub