Zinc-cobalt-bimetallic catalyst on three-dimensional ordered nitrogen-doped porous carbon for high-performance lithium-selenium batteries

Lithium-selenium (Li-Se) batteries have attracted widely attention due to their high volume specific capacity (3260 mAh cm⁻³) and good electronic conductivity (1 × 10⁻³ S m⁻¹) of selenium. However, the rapid capacity fading, high volume changes and shuttle effect of lithium polyselenides (LiPSes) limit its further application. Herein, a zinc-cobalt bimetallic catalysts on nitrogen-doped 3D ordered porous carbon (ZnCo-NC) has been constructed and applied as cathode for Li-Se batteries. Such a material could provide unique structure for the adsorption and catalytic conversion of the LiPSes during charge/discharge. As expected, the ZnCo-NC/Se cathode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 549 mAh g⁻¹ after 100 cycles at 0.2 C and 396 mAh g⁻¹ after 1000 cycles at 2 C with a Coulombic efficiency of ∼100%, significantly better than the single-metal counterparts of Co-NC/Se and Zn-NC/Se.