Study on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries have recently raised worldwide attention owning to the high specific theoretical energy density of sulfur (2600Wh kg-1), the low cost and the wide availability of sulfur. However, the practical application of lithium-sulfur batteries has been hindered by several challenges, such as the shuttling of polysulfide intermediates, the large volume expansion of sulfur during charge/discharge and the dendrites formation on Li-anode. In this talk, we will introduce our recent investigation about Li-S batteries, including physical and chemical immobilization of sulfur to improve cycling stability, segregator optimization to minimize the shuttling effect and design of ionic liquids based electrolyte system to reduce the self-discharge. Finally, we introduce a lithium-ion sulfur battery based on a Li2S cathode using a dual-phase electrolyte (Li2S/electrolyte-1/LISICON/electrolyte-2/Li) and then replaced the Li anode with Al and graphite, which demonstrates a proof of concept of metal Li free Li-ion Sulfur battery. Reference [1] S.Y. Yuan, Z.Y. Guo, L.N. Wang, S. Hu, Y. G. Wang*, Y.Y. Xia*, Adv. Sci. 2015, 2: 1500071. [2] S.Y. Yuan, J.W. Bao, L.N. Wang, Y.Y. Xia, D.G. Truhlar*, Y.G. Wang*, Adv. Energy Mater., 2015 , 1501733. [3] L.N. Wang, J.Y. Liu, S. Haller, Y.G. Wang*, Y.Y. Xia*, Chem. Commun., 2015, 51: 6996. [4] L.N. Wang, J.Y. Liu, S.Y. Yuan, Y.G. Wang*, Y.Y. Xia*, Energy Environ. Sci., 2016, 9: 224. [5] L.N. Wang, Y.G. Wang*, Y.Y. Xia*, Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, 8: 1551.