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

Title: Effect of Carbon and Binder on High Sulfur Loading Electrode for Li-S Battery Technology

Journal Article · · Electrochimica Acta
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

For the Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) battery to be competitive in commercialization, it is requested that the sulfur electrode must have deliverable areal capacity > 8 mAh cm-2, which corresponds to a sulfur loading > 6 mg cm-2. At this relatively high sulfur loading, we evaluated the impact of binder and carbon type on the mechanical integrity and the electrochemical properties of sulfur electrodes. We identified hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) as a new binder for the sulfur electrode because it offers better adhesion between the electrode and the aluminum current collector than the commonly used polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binder. In combination with the binder study, multiple types of carbon with high specific surface area were evaluated as sulfur hosts for high loading sulfur electrodes. A commercial microporous carbon derived from wood with high pore volume showed the best performance. An electrode with sulfur loading up to 10 mg cm-2 was achieved with the optimized recipe. Based on systematic electrochemical studies, the soluble polysulfide to insoluble Li2S2/Li2S conversion was identified to be the major barrier for high loading sulfur electrodes to achieve high sulfur utilization.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Workforce Development for Teachers & Scientists (WDTS)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1389217
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1416800
Report Number(s):
BNL-114122-2017-JA; R&D Project: 20927
Journal Information:
Electrochimica Acta, Vol. 235, Issue C; ISSN 0013-4686
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (27)

Li–O2 and Li–S batteries with high energy storage journal January 2012
Rechargeable Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal July 2014
Liquid electrolyte lithium/sulfur battery: Fundamental chemistry, problems, and solutions journal June 2013
Radical or Not Radical: Revisiting Lithium-Sulfur Electrochemistry in Nonaqueous Electrolytes journal January 2015
A highly ordered nanostructured carbon–sulphur cathode for lithium–sulphur batteries journal May 2009
Graphene-Wrapped Sulfur Particles as a Rechargeable Lithium–Sulfur Battery Cathode Material with High Capacity and Cycling Stability journal July 2011
Sulfur-Impregnated Disordered Carbon Nanotubes Cathode for Lithium–Sulfur Batteries journal October 2011
High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with a Self-Supported, 3D Li 2 S-Doped Graphene Aerogel Cathodes journal November 2015
Cathode Composites for Li–S Batteries via the Use of Oxygenated Porous Architectures journal October 2011
Lewis Acid–Base Interactions between Polysulfides and Metal Organic Framework in Lithium Sulfur Batteries journal April 2014
Manganese modified zeolite silicalite-1 as polysulphide sorbent in lithium sulphur batteries journal January 2015
Critical Link between Materials Chemistry and Cell-Level Design for High Energy Density and Low Cost Lithium-Sulfur Transportation Battery journal January 2015
Hierarchical Free-Standing Carbon-Nanotube Paper Electrodes with Ultrahigh Sulfur-Loading for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal July 2014
A lithium–sulfur cathode with high sulfur loading and high capacity per area: a binder-free carbon fiber cloth–sulfur material journal January 2014
Three-Dimensional Sulfur/Graphene Multifunctional Hybrid Sponges for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Large Areal Mass Loading journal April 2014
A graphene foam electrode with high sulfur loading for flexible and high energy Li-S batteries journal January 2015
3D Graphene-Foam-Reduced-Graphene-Oxide Hybrid Nested Hierarchical Networks for High-Performance Li-S Batteries journal December 2015
High-Energy-Density Lithium–Sulfur Batteries Based on Blade-Cast Pure Sulfur Electrodes journal April 2016
Cathode Loading Effect on Sulfur Utilization in Lithium–Sulfur Battery journal May 2016
An Efficient Parallelizable 3D Thermoelectrochemical Model of a Li-Ion Cell journal January 2013
The Effect of Microstructure on the Galvanostatic Discharge of Graphite Anode Electrodes in LiCoO[sub 2]-Based Rocking-Chair Rechargeable Batteries journal January 2009
High Energy Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Challenges of Thick Sulfur Cathodes journal March 2015
Lithium Sulfur Primary Battery with Super High Energy Density: Based on the Cauliflower-like Structured C/S Cathode journal October 2015
Enhanced Cyclability for Sulfur Cathode Achieved by a Water-Soluble Binder journal July 2011
The dispersibility and stability of carbon black in media of low dielectric constant. 1. Electrostatic and steric contributions to colloidal stability journal August 1983
Microporous carbon derived from Apricot shell as cathode material for lithium–sulfur battery journal March 2015
Two-dimensional layered transition metal disulphides for effective encapsulation of high-capacity lithium sulphide cathodes journal September 2014

Cited By (4)

Effect of Electrolyte on High Sulfur Loading Li-S Batteries journal January 2018
Progress on the Critical Parameters for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries to be Practically Viable journal May 2018
A Review of Functional Binders in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries journal October 2018
Microwave-assisted synthesis of a manganese metal–organic framework and its transformation to porous MnO/carbon nanocomposite utilized as a shuttle suppressing layer in lithium–sulfur batteries journal August 2019

Similar Records

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE