Designing Lithium–Sulfur Batteries with High-Loading Cathodes at a Lean Electrolyte Condition

Journal Article · Tue Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2018 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b17393· OSTI ID:1488317

Chung, Sheng -Heng ^[1]; Manthiram, Arumugam  ^[1]

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1. The Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)

Developing lithium–sulfur cells with a high-loading cathode at a lean-electrolyte condition is the key to bringing the lithium–sulfur technology into the energy-storage market. However, it has proven to be extremely challenging to develop a cell that simultaneously satisfies the abovementioned metrics while also displaying high electrochemical efficiency and stability. Here, we present a concept of constructing a conductive cathode substrate with a low surface area and optimized nanoporosity (i.e., limited micropores in the porous matrix) that enables achieving a high sulfur loading of 13 mg cm^–2 and a high sulfur content of 75 wt % with an extremely low electrolyte/sulfur ratio of just 4.0 μL mg^–1. The high-loading nanocomposite cathodes demonstrate high-areal capacities of 9.3 mA h cm^–2, high energy densities of 18.6 mW h cm^–2, and superior cyclability with excellent capacity retention of 85% after 200 cycles. These values are higher than the benchmarks set up for developing future commercial lithium–sulfur cells (i.e., areal capacity of >2–4 mA h cm^–2, energy density of >8–13 mW h cm^–2, and a long cycle life of 200 cycles with a capacity retention of 80%). The cathode design further exhibits high-rate capability from C/20 to 1 C rates and great potential to attain ultrahigh sulfur loading and a content of 17 mg cm^–2 and 80 wt %. Furthermore, the key nanostructural feature that enables realizing fast-charge transport is the low surface area and limited microporosity that avoid the fast consumption of the electrolyte during cell cycling.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: EE0007218
• OSTI ID: 1488317
• Journal Information: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 50; ISSN 1944-8244
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
cycle life
high sulfur content
high sulfur loading
lithium−sulfur batteries
low electrolyte amount