We report a general and straightforward approach to produce high surface area nanomaterials of transition metal nitride, carbonitride and carbide nanoparticles that are highly dispersed on 3D carbonaceous structure. The preparation of these novel nanomaterials involves a simple one-step heat treatment of a metal precursor and urea-derived graphitic carbon nitride mixture under argon, unlike the conventional methods of using ammonia gas to prepare nitride and high-temperature carbothermal reduction of oxide to produce carbide. With this approach, we have synthesized titanium nitride (TiN/C), vanadium carbonitride (V₂CN/C) and niobium carbide-based (NbC/C) nanomaterials using alkoxide precursors. Taking advantage of their high electronic conductivity and surface properties, we have developed the nitrides and carbides as polysulfide (PS) regulators to combat the well-known problems of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries (shuttle phenomena, insulating sulfur, etc.). In particular, V₂CN/C nanomaterial was found to possess higher redox activity as compared to TiN/C and NbC/C based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, polysulfide adsorption studies and various electrochemical experiments. V₂CN/C also demonstrated superior performance with an initial specific capacity of 1055 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.2 C and sulfur loading of 4.5 mg cm⁻², and a practical areal capacity and capacity retention of ~ 4.2 mAh cm⁻² and 89%, respectively, after 300 cycles.

我们报告了一种通用且直接的方法来生产高度分散在 3D 碳质结构上的过渡金属氮化物、碳氮化物和碳化物纳米粒子的高表面积纳米材料。这些新型纳米材料的制备涉及在氩气下对金属前体和尿素衍生的石墨氮化碳混合物进行简单的一步热处理，这与使用氨气制备氮化物和高温碳热还原氧化物的常规方法不同。碳化物。通过这种方法，我们合成了氮化钛（TiN/C）、碳氮化钒（V ₂CN/C) 和碳化铌基 (NbC/C) 纳米材料使用醇盐前体。利用它们的高电子导电性和表面特性，我们开发了氮化物和碳化物作为多硫化物 (PS) 调节剂，以解决锂硫 (Li-S) 电池的众所周知的问题（穿梭现象、绝缘硫等）。 ）。特别是，基于密度泛函理论 (DFT) 计算、多硫化物吸附研究和各种电化学实验，发现 V ₂ CN/C 纳米材料与 TiN/C 和 NbC​​/C 相比具有更高的氧化还原活性。V ₂ CN/C 也表现出优异的性能，在 0.2 C 时的初始比容量为 1055 mAh g ^-1，硫负载量为 4.5 mg cm ^-2，在 300 次循环后，实际面积容量和容量保持率分别为 ~ 4.2 mAh cm ^-2和 89%。