skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Hierarchical sulfur electrodes as a testing platform for understanding the high-loading capability of Li-S batteries

Journal Article · · Journal of Power Sources
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Materials Science and Engineering Program & Texas Materials Inst.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered as an attractive electrochemical energy storage system due to the high theoretical capacity of sulfur (1,675 mA h g-1). However, high-loading sulfur cathodes would need to be employed for the Li-S cells to be practical, but the resulting poor cell cyclability and severe electrode degradation hamper their development. Here in this paper, we present a hierarchical sulfur cathode as a testing platform for understanding the high-loading capability of Li-S batteries. The hierarchical cathode presents good electrochemical utilization of above 70%, stable cyclability for 500–1,000 cycles, and high sulfur loadings of 4.2–10.0 mg cm-2. The exploration of the activation and the polysulfide-retention processes of the high-loading cathodes illustrates that the electrochemical stability mainly results from the stabilization of dissolved polysulfides within the cathode region as the electrochemically active catholyte. Therefore, the utilization of stabilized polysulfide migration might be a meaningful opportunity for designing high-loading cathodes and further improving their electrochemical stability and long-term cyclability.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0007218; EE007218
OSTI ID:
1487250
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1397464
Journal Information:
Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 334, Issue C; ISSN 0378-7753
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (63)

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Electrochemistry, Materials, and Prospects journal November 2013
Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Progress and Prospects journal February 2015
Progress Towards Commercially Viable Li-S Battery Cells journal April 2015
A Lithium/Dissolved Sulfur Battery with an Organic Electrolyte journal January 1979
Lithium-Sulfur Battery: Evaluation of Dioxolane-Based Electrolytes journal January 1989
Polysulfide Shuttle Study in the Li/S Battery System journal January 2004
Capacity Fading Mechanisms on Cycling a High-Capacity Secondary Sulfur Cathode journal January 2004
Lithium/Sulfur Cell Discharge Mechanism: An Original Approach for Intermediate Species Identification journal April 2012
Recent progress and remaining challenges in sulfur-based lithium secondary batteries – a review journal January 2013
Lithium-Sulfur Cells: The Gap between the State-of-the-Art and the Requirements for High Energy Battery Cells journal April 2015
Understanding the Lithium Sulfur Battery System at Relevant Scales journal August 2015
Carbon–sulfur composites for Li–S batteries: status and prospects journal January 2013
Recent advances in lithium–sulfur batteries journal December 2014
Recent Advances in Lithium Sulfide Cathode Materials and Their Use in Lithium Sulfur Batteries journal April 2015
Structural Design of Cathodes for Li-S Batteries journal April 2015
In Situ Synthesis of Bipyramidal Sulfur with 3D Carbon Nanotube Framework for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal December 2013
Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbon Promoted Chemical Adsorption of Sulfur and Fabrication of High-Areal-Capacity Sulfur Cathode with Exceptional Cycling Stability for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal October 2013
High capacity micro-mesoporous carbon–sulfur nanocomposite cathodes with enhanced cycling stability prepared by a solvent-free procedure journal January 2013
Nitrogen-Doped Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Graphene Sandwiches: Facile Catalytic Growth on Bifunctional Natural Catalysts and Their Applications as Scaffolds for High-Rate Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal May 2014
Hierarchical Vine-Tree-Like Carbon Nanotube Architectures: In-Situ CVD Self-Assembly and Their Use as Robust Scaffolds for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal September 2014
Enabling Prominent High-Rate and Cycle Performances in One Lithium-Sulfur Battery: Designing Permselective Gateways for Li + Transportation in Holey-CNT/S Cathodes journal May 2015
Sulfur-Based Composite Cathode Materials for High-Energy Rechargeable Lithium Batteries journal September 2014
ZnO Hard Templating for Synthesis of Hierarchical Porous Carbons with Tailored Porosity and High Performance in Lithium-Sulfur Battery journal November 2014
A Hierarchical Particle-Shell Architecture for Long-Term Cycle Stability of Li 2 S Cathodes journal August 2015
The Lithium/Sulfur Rechargeable Cell journal January 2002
High Energy Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Challenges of Thick Sulfur Cathodes journal March 2015
Aligned carbon nanotube/sulfur composite cathodes with high sulfur content for lithium–sulfur batteries journal March 2014
Robust, Ultra-Tough Flexible Cathodes for High-Energy Li-S Batteries journal December 2015
A Revolution in Electrodes: Recent Progress in Rechargeable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal December 2014
Recent Advances in Electrolytes for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal April 2015
Sulfur-Impregnated Activated Carbon Fiber Cloth as a Binder-Free Cathode for Rechargeable Li-S Batteries journal November 2011
Novel positive electrode architecture for rechargeable lithium/sulfur batteries journal August 2012
Carbonized Eggshell Membrane as a Natural Polysulfide Reservoir for Highly Reversible Li-S Batteries journal November 2013
Eggshell Membrane-Derived Polysulfide Absorbents for Highly Stable and Reversible Lithium–Sulfur Cells journal September 2014
Three-dimensional aluminum foam/carbon nanotube scaffolds as long- and short-range electron pathways with improved sulfur loading for high energy density lithium–sulfur batteries journal September 2014
A Graphene-Pure-Sulfur Sandwich Structure for Ultrafast, Long-Life Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal November 2013
A hierarchical carbonized paper with controllable thickness as a modulable interlayer system for high performance Li–S batteries journal January 2014
Porous Carbon Mat as an Electrochemical Testing Platform for Investigating the Polysulfide Retention of Various Cathode Configurations in Li–S Cells journal May 2015
Mesoporous Carbon Interlayers with Tailored Pore Volume as Polysulfide Reservoir for High-Energy Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal February 2015
Enhanced performance of lithium sulfur battery with self-assembly polypyrrole nanotube film as the functional interlayer journal January 2015
A Lightweight TiO 2 /Graphene Interlayer, Applied as a Highly Effective Polysulfide Absorbent for Fast, Long-Life Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal March 2015
Bifunctional Separator with a Light-Weight Carbon-Coating for Dynamically and Statically Stable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal June 2014
A Polyethylene Glycol-Supported Microporous Carbon Coating as a Polysulfide Trap for Utilizing Pure Sulfur Cathodes in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal September 2014
Electrochemically Stable Rechargeable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with a Microporous Carbon Nanofiber Filter for Polysulfide journal July 2015
Functional Mesoporous Carbon-Coated Separator for Long-Life, High-Energy Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal July 2015
Ultra-lightweight PANiNF/MWCNT-functionalized separators with synergistic suppression of polysulfide migration for Li–S batteries with pure sulfur cathodes journal January 2015
Enhanced rate capability and cycle stability of lithium–sulfur batteries with a bifunctional MCNT@PEG-modified separator journal January 2015
Effective Stabilization of a High-Loading Sulfur Cathode and a Lithium-Metal Anode in Li-S Batteries Utilizing SWCNT-Modulated Separators journal November 2015
Reconfiguration of lithium sulphur batteries: “Enhancement of Li–S cell performance by employing a highly porous conductive separator coating” journal March 2016
Ionic shield for polysulfides towards highly-stable lithium–sulfur batteries journal January 2014
Fabrication of a nano-Li + -channel interlayer for high performance Li–S battery application journal January 2015
Multi-functional separator/interlayer system for high-stable lithium-sulfur batteries: Progress and prospects journal November 2015
Permselective Graphene Oxide Membrane for Highly Stable and Anti-Self-Discharge Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal February 2015
Highly-flexible 3D Li2S/graphene cathode for high-performance lithium sulfur batteries journal September 2016
Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Graphene-CNT@Se: A Highly Efficient Freestanding Cathode for Li–Se Batteries journal April 2016
Lithium Iodide as a Promising Electrolyte Additive for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Mechanisms of Performance Enhancement journal November 2014
Anodes for Rechargeable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal April 2015
New insight into the discharge process of sulfur cathode by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy journal April 2009
Synthesis and electrochemical properties of a sulfur-multi walled carbon nanotubes composite as a cathode material for lithium sulfur batteries journal March 2012
Capacity fading in lithium/sulfur batteries: A linear four-state model journal December 2014
Highly Reversible Lithium/Dissolved Polysulfide Batteries with Carbon Nanotube Electrodes journal May 2013
Insight into the Effect of Boron Doping on Sulfur/Carbon Cathode in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal April 2014
Advances in Li–S batteries journal January 2010

Cited By (13)

Structural Design of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: From Fundamental Research to Practical Application journal June 2018
Progress on the Critical Parameters for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries to be Practically Viable journal May 2018
A Facile, Low-Cost Hot-Pressing Process for Fabricating Lithium-Sulfur Cells with Stable Dynamic and Static Electrochemistry journal October 2018
Dual confinement of sulphur with rGO-wrapped microporous carbon from β-cyclodextrin nanosponges as a cathode material for Li–S batteries journal June 2017
Review on High-Loading and High-Energy Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal May 2017
Vapour induced phase inversion: preparing high performance self-standing sponge-like electrodes with a sulfur loading of over 10 mg cm −2 journal January 2018
A Flexible 3D Multifunctional MgO-Decorated Carbon Foam@CNTs Hybrid as Self-Supported Cathode for High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal August 2017
Separator Decoration with Cobalt/Nitrogen Codoped Carbon for Highly Efficient Polysulfide Confinement in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal August 2017
Stabilizing Lithium-Sulfur Batteries through Control of Sulfur Aggregation and Polysulfide Dissolution journal April 2018
Multi-functional nanowall arrays with unrestricted Li + transport channels and an integrated conductive network for high-areal-capacity Li–S batteries journal January 2018
In Situ Synthesis of Sulfur Host with Chemisorption and Electrocatalytic Capability toward High‐Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal April 2019
Graphene/Sulfur@Graphene Composite Structure Material for a Lithium-Sulfur Battery Cathode journal March 2019
Current Status and Future Prospects of Metal–Sulfur Batteries journal May 2019

Figures / Tables (8)