Wei-Hong Zhong

The sulfur (S) cathode of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries is limited by poor electrical conductivity, polysulfide dissolution, sluggish conversion kinetics, and large volume variation during cycling. These issues are closely coupled with inadequate electronic/ionic transport and insufficient mechanical integrity of the cathode architecture—factors in which the binder plays a critical role. Herein, a dual‐conductive and mechanically robust cross‐linked binder, composed of polyacrylic acid, graphene and polyvinyl alcohol (c‐PGP), is designed to simultaneously regulate sulfur redox chemistry and electrode integrity. The cross‐linked polymer network provides strong mechanical stability to accommodate sulfur volume expansion, while graphene incorporation establishes continuous electronic pathways. Meanwhile, abundant polar functional groups enable strong chemical immobilization of soluble polysulfides, suppressing their diffusion and mitigating the shuttle effect. As a result, the S cathode with the c‐PGP binder exhibits improved electrolyte wettability, reduced interfacial resistance, accelerated Li ⁺ diffusion, and promoted Li ₂ S nucleation/decomposition. Li–S cells with the c‐PGP binder demonstrate lower polarization, enhanced rate capability and stable cycling performance over 600 cycles at 0.5 A/g. This work highlights the critical role of multifunctional binder design in advancing high‐performance S cathode.

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted considerable attention due to their high theoretical energy density. However, their practical application is hindered by critical issues, including uneven lithium deposition and polysulfide shuttling. To address these critical issues, surface functionalization with nitrogen- (N-) and oxygen- (O-) containing polar groups has proven effective in stabilizing battery interfaces by suppressing polysulfide migration and promoting uniform lithium deposition. Here, we propose a facile strategy to construct an N- and O-rich interlayer via a simple one-step hydrolysis process. The resulting hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile–poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) interlayer introduces abundant N- and O-containing polar groups onto a commercial separator (CS) to form the modified separator N–O@CS, which exhibits enhanced electrolyte wettability, mechanical strength, and electronic polarizability, thereby effectively regulating polysulfide migration and lithium deposition. Specifically, at 0.2 A g⁻¹, the cells achieve a high capacity of 675.5 mAh g⁻¹ with a retention of 95.3% after 200 cycles, outperforming those with CS (468 mAh g⁻¹, 72%) and N@CS (603 mAh g⁻¹, 90.1%). Furthermore, at a higher current density of 0.5 A g⁻¹, the cell with N–O@CS retains 62.3% of its initial capacity after 600 cycles. This study offers a simple and effective strategy to fabricate high-performance Li–S batteries.

Batteries are a cornerstone of modern technology that supports a wide range of applications including portable electronics, electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage for renewable power systems. Despite their widespread use, commercial Li-ion batteries are limited by the mineral resources of Li. The rapidly growing battery market demands alternative battery systems, such as non-alkali metal-ion batteries, that are capable of delivering comparative energy densities. In the meantime, improving the performance of the batteries via generating sustainable strategies has been broadly studied. Proteins, as re naturally evolved macromolecules that possess diverse structures and functional groups, have been demonstrated to be able to transport various metallic ions inside bio-organisms. Therefore, active studies have been carried out on the use of natural proteins (e.g., zein, soy, fibroin, bovine serum albumin, etc.) to enhance the electrochemical performance of non-alkali metal-ion batteries. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advances on the studies of protein-based strategies for non-alkali metal-ion batteries and outlines perspectives for future sustainable electrochemical energy storage systems.

Lithium–sulfur batteries offer high theoretical energy density, affordability, and environmental friendliness, but lack commercial viability due to performance issues stemming from Li dendrite growth and the shuttle effect. In this study, we apply a positively charged amino acid in a surface coating for commercial polypropylene separators, endowing it with shuttle‐inhibiting and anode‐stabilizing functions. The amino acid‐modified separator (A‐PC@PP) features a nanocomposite interlayer of L‐Arginine (Arg), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) to trap and convert polysulfides. Meanwhile, Arg and PAA functional groups introduced throughout the separator homogenize the flux of Li⁺, suppressing the growth of dendrites on the Li metal anode. Arising from these favorable functions, Li‐S cells equipped with A‐PC@PP separators show excellent rate capability (> 530 mAh/g at an ultrahigh current density of 5 A/g) and improved cycling stability (with a low decay rate of 0.068% per cycle for 500 cycles at 0.5 A/g). This study showcases the viability of a promising and abundant amino acid in addressing the critical issues of Li‐S batteries.

Batteries are a cornerstone of modern technology that support a wide range of applications including portable electronics, electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage for renewable power systems. Despite the widespread use, commercial Li-ion batteries are limited by mineral resources of Li. The rapidly growing battery market demands for alternative battery systems, such as non-alkali metal-ion batteries, that are capable of delivering comparative energy densities. In the meantime, to improve the performance of the batteries via generating sustainable strategies has been broadly studied. Proteins being naturally evolved macromolecules that possess diverse structures and functional groups have been demonstrated to be able to transport various metallic ions inside the bio-organisms. Therefore, active studies have been carried out on the use of natural proteins (e.g., zein, soy, fibroin, bovine serum albumin, etc.) to enhance the electrochemical performance of non-alkali metal-ion batteries. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advances on studies of protein-based strategies for non-alkali metal-ion batteries and outlines perspectives for future sustainable electrochemical energy storage systems.

Advancement of sulfur (S) cathode of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries is hindered by issues such as insulating nature of sulfur, sluggish redox kinetics, polysulfide dissolution and shuttling. To address these issues, we initiate a study on applying an important amino acid of protein, arginine (Arg), as a functional additive into S cathode. Based on our simulation study, the positively charged Arg facilitates strong interactions with polysulfides. The experimental results indicate that the interaction enable capability of trapping polysulfides within the S cathode, responsible for reducing shuttle effects. Furthermore, the positively charged Arg also promotes efficient ion diffusion and polysulfides conversion. The new findings include that, with addition of only 1 wt % Arg, the resultant cathode demonstrates effectively enhanced electrolyte wettability, polysulfide adsorption and redox kinetics, leading to enhanced rate performance and long‐term cycling stability. This study highlights the great potential of amino acids being able to act as effective functional bio‐additives in S cathode, paving a new way to high‐performance and sustainable energy storage solutions.

The abundance and environmental friendliness in nature of sulfur (S) make Li–S batteries more attractive in addition to the high theoretical capacity (1675 mAh g ⁻¹ ) and energy density (2600 Wh kg ⁻¹ ) of the batteries. In this study, a bio‐based S cathode with graphene (Gr) coating, capable of effectively suppressing the shuttle effect of polysulfides, is enabled via networking soy protein (SP) and polydopamine (PDA) to form a functional bio‐binder (SP‐PDA). Dopamine self‐polymerization in SP not only generates the interpenetrated network for the bio‐binder but also makes the denatured structure of SP with rich functional groups effective for trapping polysulfides. Meanwhile, the Gr coating with low impedance, and high electronic and ionic conductivity on the cathode surface further significantly reduces polysulfide dissolution. Consequently, the Li–S batteries with the bio‐cathode (SP‐PDA@Gr) demonstrate excellent rate performance and long cycling capacity. In specific, under the current density of 0.5 A g ⁻¹ at 70% (500 mAh g ⁻¹ ) capacity retention, the cycle life of the Li–S cell with SP‐PDA@Gr cathode is 600 cycles, i.e.,100 times longer than that of the cell with PVDF binder. This study provides a sustainable strategy for enhancing the performance of Li–S batteries through networking natural proteins to form functional bio‐binders.