Pre-carbonized nickel–metal organic frameworks to enable lithium–sulfur reactions

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks, a type of porous architecture, have caught wide attention for their pore-rich and special metal-active centres. However, the non-conductive MOFs show limitations in lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs). Herein, we first synthesized a lamellar nickel-based MOF and subsequently conducted pre-carbonization to attain a conductive Ni-carbon (Ni@C) catalyst. On account of the retained three-dimensional architecture and elevated conductivity, using Ni@C as the interlayer can realize polysulfide-regulated and kinetically promoted LSBs. This work offers a viable strategy to extend the implementation of MOFs in state-of-the-art LSB systems.