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[Display omitted] • CoN-Mo 2 N heterostructure is synthesized by nitriding the CoMoO 4 nanorods; • CoN-Mo 2 N heterostructure has strong adsorption/bidirectional catalytic capacity for polysulfides; • Li-S cells assembled with CoN-Mo 2 N modified separators show excellent electrochemical performance. A single functional material can hardly simultaneously overcome the problems of poor conductivity of active sulfur, shuttle effect and slow redox reaction kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) in rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, a multi-functional CoN-Mo 2 N heterostructure nanorods with excellent adsorption capability and bidirectional catalytic ability is introduced. It is found that the CoN-Mo 2 N heterostructure has a significant interaction with LiPSs, and its chemical affinity can promote the adsorption of LiPSs; The Li 2 S nucleation and electrochemical testing results show that the CoN-Mo 2 N heterostructure can promote the uniform nucleation and rapid growth of Li 2 S, where CoN tends to promote the oxidation reaction kinetics, and Mo 2 N promotes the reduction reaction kinetics. The assembled Li-S cells with CoN-Mo 2 N modified separators can deliver outstanding rate performance and long-cycling stability, with a high initial reversible discharge capacity of 1605.8 mAh g−1 at 0.1C, and capacity decay rate per cycle of 0.198 % after 200 cycles at 0.2C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]