Porous NiCoS Nanoneedle Arrays with Highly Efficient Electrocatalysis Anchored on Carbon Cloths as Self-Supported Hosts for High-Loading Li-S Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted all-time attention because of their supernormal high energy density and low cost, whereas they are still plagued by the severe polysulfide shuttling and sluggish sulfur redox reaction kinetics. Moreover, poor sulfur electrochemical utilization and rapid capacity degradation are top concerns in the high-loading Li-S batteries, which severely hinder their practical applications. Herein, a completely novel porous nanoneedle array NiCoS electrocatalyst grown on a nitrogen-sulfur-doped carbon cloth (NSCC) (NiCoS@NSCC) is constructed as a 3D self-supported sulfur host for high-loading Li-S batteries, in which the highest sulfur loading reaches 4.