Defected molybdenum disulfide catalyst engineered by nitrogen doping for advanced lithium-oxygen battery

Rechargeable lithium-oxygen (Li-O-2) batteries have great potential for electric vehicles and grid energy storage system. The cathode catalysts play a crucial role in accelerating the oxygen reaction kinetics for improving battery performance. Herein, we employ hetero-atom doping method by combining hydrothermal reaction and ammonia-atmosphere calcination to introduce defects in MoS2 catalyst. The experimental results reveal the fabricated N-doped MoS2 (denoted as N-MoS2) catalysts introduced with abundant lattice defects while maintains the crystal structure of MoS2. The lithium-oxygen batteries with N-MoS2 catalyst as cathode show high initial specific capacity of 5500 mAh g(-1) at 100 mA g(-1) with good reversibility and efficiency. And the N-MoS2 cathode exhibits good rate capability and cycle stability up to 100 cycles. We reveal that the porous structure and lattice defects promote the exposition of active sites, resulting in higher electrochemical activity for oxygen reduction and the decomposition of discharge products. This work provides a promising avenue for constructing a bi-functional defected molybdenum disulfide catalyst by nitrogen doping in Li-O-2 batteries. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.