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Title: Cathode Loading Effect on Sulfur Utilization in Lithium–Sulfur Battery

Journal Article · · Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4034738· OSTI ID:1389219
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) battery is under intensive research in recent years due to its potential to provide higher energy density and lower cost than the current state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery technology. To meet cost target for transportation application, high sulfur loading up to 8 mAh cm-2 is predicted by modeling. In this work, we have investigated the sulfur loading effect on the galvanostatic charge/discharge cycling performance of Li-S cells with theoretical sulfur loading ranging from 0.5 mAh cm-2 to 7.5 mAh cm-2. We found that the low sulfur utilization of electrodes with sulfur loading of > 3.0 mAh cm-2 is due to their inability to deliver capacities at the 2.1V voltage plateau, which corresponds to the conversion of soluble Li2S4 to insoluble Li2S2/Li2S. This electrochemical conversion process recovers to deliver the expected sulfur utilization after several activation cycles for electrodes with sulfur loading up to 4.5 mAh cm-2. For electrodes with 7.0 mAh cm-2 loading, no sulfur utilization recovery was observed for 100 cycles. The root cause of this phenomenon is elucidated by SEM/EDS and EIS investigation. Carbon interlayer cell design and low rate discharge activation are demonstrated to be effective mitigation methods.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1389219
Report Number(s):
BNL-114125-2017-JA; R&D Project: 20927
Journal Information:
Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, Vol. 13, Issue 2; ISSN 2381-6872
Publisher:
ASMECopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (25)

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Cited By (4)

Promoting the Transformation of Li 2 S 2 to Li 2 S: Significantly Increasing Utilization of Active Materials for High‐Sulfur‐Loading Li–S Batteries journal April 2019
Structural Design of Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: From Fundamental Research to Practical Application journal June 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
Effect of Electrolyte on High Sulfur Loading Li-S Batteries journal January 2018

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25 ENERGY STORAGE
Lithium-sulfur battery
sulfur utilization
sulfur loading
activation.