Fabrication of permselective interlayer with uniform pore structure and in-situ sulfurized Co4S3 for high performance lithium sulfur battery.

• Permselective interlayer was designed and fabricated for Li-S battery. • The networked porous structure amplifies the LiPSs adsorption and conversion performance of Co 4 S 3. • Co 4 S 3 and pyridinic N sites can synergistically facilitate the transmission of Li+. • The Li-S battery performance is remarkably improved by enhancing the permselective capability of the interlayer. Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have garnered significant research interest owing to their exceptional energy density, positioning them as a compelling candidate for next-generation energy storage technology. Nonetheless, their broad application faces challenges, primarily attributed to issues such as the shuttle effect induced by the lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) migration. The integration of a functional interlayer between cathode and separator has emerged as a straightforward, cost-effective, and efficient strategy, but its structure and composition need to be designed more elaborately. Herein, inspired by the semipermeable cell membrane in biology, we focused on improving the permselectivity of the interlayer by fabricating a Co 4 S 3 nanoparticles incorporated carbon-based permselective interlayer via phase inversion method combining in-situ sulfurization and carbonization. The networked porous structure makes the adsorptive and catalytic active Co 4 S 3 accessible to more LiPSs and realizes the blockage of LiPSs diffusion, and the Li+ diffusion is simultaneously facilitated attributed to the synergy of Co 4 S 3 and lithiophilic N sites. The Li-S battery, integrated with the proposed permselective interlayer, exhibits notable enhancements in both specific capacity and cycling stability. Remarkably, it maintains a specific capacity of 635.6 mAh/g after 500 cycles at 2.0 C, and a capacity of 563.5 mAh/g after 400 cycles at 4.0 C, demonstrating a comparable decay rate of only ∼ 0.09 %. This result demonstrates the effectiveness and necessity of augmenting the permselective capability of the interlayer to significantly enhance the overall performance of Li-S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]