Novel, Economically Scalable Approaches for the Development of High Energy Density, Long Cycle Life, and Safe Lithium-Sulfur Batteries
Authors: Xing Weibing , Hasan Md Wahidul , Razzaq Amir Abdul 
Published: December 2024

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are identified as one of the most promising next-generation battery technologies owing to their high theoretical specific energy, material abundance, and low cost advantages. However, commercialization of Li-S batteries has not been widespread due to severe technical challenges1-3 including the lithium polysulfide (PS) dissolution/shuttling effect, a major cause of fast capacity degradation over cycling in Li-S batteries. In our recent work,4 a thin film of nanolayer-polymer-coated-carbons (NPC) was deposited on sulfur electrodes (NPC-S), which enabled the resultant Li-S battery cells to deliver a high specific capacity of ~1,600 mAh/g, approaching the theoretical specific capacity limit of sulfur, without adding any appreciable dead weight or volume to the batteries. Our electrochemical, analytical, and computational results suggested that the realization of the near-theoretical specific capacity from our practical Li-S battery cells was a result of the effective PS-trapping power and the increased redox reaction kinetics for sulfur « PS’s conversions during battery charge and discharge.

In this talk, we will present our continued efforts to further develop the advanced Li-S battery technology where a novel, cycle-stabilizing and safety-enhancing approach is implemented, for the first time, in the Li-S batteries, in concert with the NPC-S approach. Using this synergistic strategy, the resultant Li-S battery cells demonstrated not only the near-theoretical specific capacity of sulfur (Figure 1a), but also a significantly improved cycle stability, retaining ~80% of the initial capacity after 300 charge-discharge cycles (Figure 1b). Various characterization techniques are being employed to help understand reaction mechanisms of the outstanding Li-S battery performance. In addition to the performance benefits, we will show that these approaches are simple, economically scalable, and, therefore, offer a promising potential for the development of high energy density, long cycle life, and safe Li-S batteries for practical applications.

References

Wang, S.; Wang, Z.; Chen, F.; Peng, B.; Xu, J.; Li, J.; Lv, Y.; Kang, Q.; Xia, A.; Ma, L. "Electrocatalysts in lithium-sulfur batteries". Nano Research
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Zhao, F. L.; Xue, J. H.; Shao, W.; Yu, H.; Huang, W.; Xiao, J. "Toward high-sulfur-content, high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries: Review of materials and technologies". J Energy Chem
2023, 80, 625-657. DOI: 10.1016/j.jechem.2023.02.009.

Hu, X.; Huang, T.; Zhang, G.; Lin, S.; Chen, R.; Chung, L.-H.; He, J. "Metal-organic framework-based catalysts for lithium-sulfur batteries.". Coordination Chemistry Reviews
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Hasan, M. W.; Huynh, K.; Lama, B.; Razzaq, A. A.; Smdani, M. G.; Akter, F. N.; Maddipudi, B.; Shende, R.; Paudel, T. R.; Xing, W. "A Highly Effective Polysulfide-Trapping Approach for the Development of High Energy Density, Scalable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries". J Electrochem Soc
2024. DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ad3ebf.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Linda and Larry Pearson Endowed Chair at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, and the South Dakota Governor Research Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

Figure 1