Li pre-doping technique using perforated electrodes for the cells with a rubber-derived sulfur composite cathode

Abstract

We attempted to develop a disassembly- and reassembly-free Li pre-doping technique using perforated electrodes in order to develop Li-ion batteries containing a rubber-derived sulfur composite cathode. The Li pre-doping of the anodes was performed using perforated electrodes by external shorting between the anodes and Li metal electrodes provided on both end parts of the stacked electrodes within the cell, in which the degree of the Li pre-doping could be determined by the open circuit voltage measurement between the anodes and Li metal electrodes. The Li pre-doping of the graphite anodes in the cell composed of rubber-derived sulfur composite cathodes and graphite anodes was successfully conducted using this technique without disassembly and reassembly of the cell. After the Li pre-doping treatment, a stable charge-discharge was achieved between the rubber-derived sulfur composite cathodes and Li pre-doped graphite anodes. The Li pre-doping technique using the perforated electrodes was demonstrated to be applied even for practical 5 Ah cell. Furthermore, the Li pre-doping of the SiO anodes could be achieved in the cell composed of the perforated rubber-derived sulfur composite cathodes and SiO anodes, in which the cell showed a stable cycling performance and excellent charge-discharge rate performance.