Aqueous zinc-sulfur batteries at room temperature hold great potential for next-generation energy storage technology due to their low cost, safety and high energy density. However, slow reaction kinetics and high activation energy at the sulfur cathode pose great challenges for the practical applications. Herein, biomass-derived carbon with single-atomic cobalt sites (MMPC-Co) is synthesized as the cathode in Zn-S batteries. The catalysis of single-atom Co sites greatly promotes the transform of cathode electrolyte interface (CEI) on the cathode surface, while offering accelerated charge transfer rate for high conversion reversibility and large electrochemical surface area (ECSA) for high electrocatalytic current. Furthermore, the rich pore structure not only physically limits sulfur loss, but also accelerates the transport of zinc ions. In addition, the large pore volume of MMPC-Co is able to relieve the stress effect caused by the volume expansion of ZnS during charge/discharge cycles, thereby maintaining the stability of electrode structure. Consequently, the sulfur cathode maintains a high specific capacity of 729.96 mA h g after 500 cycles at 4 A g, which is much better than most cathode materials reported in the literature. This work provides new insights into the design and development of room-temperature aqueous Zn-S batteries.

中文翻译：

---

生物质衍生的多孔碳与单原子钴在室温下实现高性能水性锌硫电池

室温水系锌硫电池由于其低成本、安全性和高能量密度而在下一代储能技术方面具有巨大潜力。然而，硫阴极缓慢的反应动力学和高活化能给实际应用带来了巨大的挑战。在此，合成了具有单原子钴位点的生物质衍生碳（MMPC-Co）作为锌硫电池的阴极。单原子Co位点的催化作用极大地促进了阴极表面阴极电解质界面（CEI）的转变，同时提供加速的电荷转移速率以实现高转化可逆性和大电化学表面积（ECSA）以实现高电催化电流。此外，丰富的孔隙结构不仅物理上限制了硫的损失，而且还加速了锌离子的传输。此外，MMPC-Co的大孔体积能够缓解充放电循环过程中ZnS体积膨胀引起的应力效应，从而保持电极结构的稳定性。因此，硫正极在4 A g-1循环500次后仍保持729.96 mAh g-1的高比容量，这比文献报道的大多数正极材料要好得多。这项工作为室温水系锌硫电池的设计和开发提供了新的见解。