The naturally sluggish redox kinetics and limited utilization associated with the sulfur conversion in Zn/S electrochemistry hinder its real application. Herein, we report an in-situ phase reconstruction strategy that activates the catalysis activity of vanadium oxides for invoking the redox-catalysis to manipulate reversible sulfur conversion. It was identified that the V2O3@C/S precursor derived from metal organic frameworks can be transformed into V2O5-m·nH2O@C/S by a facile electrochemical induction process. The vanadium oxides can realize a faster zinc ions storage process than sulfur components during the discharging, thereby the pre-zincified ZnxV2O5·nH2O behaves as a redox medium to catalyze the sulfur reduction via a spontaneous reaction (Znx+1V2O5 + S = ZnxV2O5 + ZnS, △G= -6.4 kJ mol-1). For the reverse battery recharging, the electrodeposited ZnS around the active sites can be easily activated and the facile Zn2+ transport between ZnxV2O5·nH2O and ZnS enables the reversible conversion of ZnS back to S (ZnxV2O5 + ZnS = Znx+1V2O5 + S, △G= -7.02 kJ mol-1). Accordingly, the composite cathode delivers a high capacity of 1630.7 mAh g-1 and maintains stable capacity retention after 150 cycles at 4 A g-1. The proposed redox catalysis effect shed light on the tunable Zn-S chemistry.

This article is Open Access

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