A novel nano-sulfur/polypyrrole/graphene nanocomposite cathode with a dual-layered structure for lithium rechargeable batteries

Zhang, Yongguang; Zhao, Yan; Konarov, Aishuak; Gosselink, Denise; Soboleski, Hayden; Chen, P.

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.05.005

Cited by 108 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Many allotropes of carbonaceous materials have been used for this purpose such as activated carbons, [26][27][28] carbon blacks, [19][20][21][22]24,25 ] carbon nanotubes, [ 18,23,29 ] and graphene, [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] which exhibit high specifi c surface area, high electrical conductivity and good thermal and chemical stability. Other materials used include conductive polymers such as polyaniline, [ 39,75 ] metal oxides, [44][45][46][47][48][49] and, more recently, metal organic frameworks.…”

Section: Conventional Approach: 2d Current Collectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Design of Cathodes for Li‐S Batteries

Pope

Aksay

2015

Advanced Energy Materials

427

330

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Optimized Li-ion batteries can now achieve specifi c energies ( E ) up to ≈200 Wh kg −1 but only marginal improvements to this technology are expected in the near future as cells reach their theoretical limits. [ 3,5,6 ] While signifi cant progress has been made, [ 7 ] continued improvements to drive range, decreased charging times and more effi cient operation at high power are required to effectively accept energy generated during braking [ 8 ] and to make charging times more convenient for consumers who are used to spending only a few minutes fi lling their tanks with gas as opposed to overnight charging required by current battery systems.Cost is also a factor. Most Li-ion batteries are too expensive to be economical for grid level storage and also make the price of electric vehicles prohibitively expensive for the average consumer. A state-of-the-art Li-ion battery pack costs ≈$400 per kWh, [ 7 ] a fi gure which needs to be reduced to ≈$150 per kWh as suggested by the US Advanced Battery Consortium. [ 8 ] In a recent review, Larcher and Tarascon also pointed out the importance of the sustainability of materials and processes used to make these batteries. [ 5 ] In order to reduce the energy and fossil fuel consumption associated with materials extraction and battery manufacturing we must look towards abundant, accessible, recyclable materials and low temperature production processes. [ 5 ] Advantages of Li-S BatteriesLithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are regarded as one of the most promising systems as they hold the potential to address most of the challenges discussed above. Sulfur is abundant and inexpensive, currently produced in large quantities, as a waste product of the oil and gas industry and is also naturally occurring, being the 16 th most abundant element in the Earth's lithosphere. [ 9 ] Sulfur's low melting point (115.2 °C) and sublimation temperature lead to potentially more energy effi cient manufacturing approaches. Most importantly, the electrochemical reduction of sulfur: S + 2Li + → Li 2 S + 2e − , yields a theoretical capacity of 1672 mAh g −1 sulfur which is an order of magnitude larger than state-of-the-art Li-ion cathode materials such as LiCoO 2 , LiFePO 4 , and NCA which exhibit theoretical capacities of 140-180 mAh g −1 . [ 1,3,5 ] This high cathode capacity ( Q C ) arises through a combination of sulfur's low molecular weight ( M W = 32.06) and the net two-electrons ( n = 2) generated through the Battery technologies involving Li-S chemistries have been touted as one of the most promising next generation systems. The theoretical capacity of sulfur is nearly an order of magnitude higher than current Li-ion battery insertion cathodes and when coupled with a Li metal anode, Li-S batteries promise specifi c energies nearly fi ve-fold higher. However, this assertion only holds if sulfur cathodes could be designed in the same manner as cathodes for Li-ion batteries. Here, the recent efforts to engineer high capacity, thick, sulfur-based cathodes are explored. Various works are compared in ...

show abstract

Section: Conventional Approach: 2d Current Collectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Design of Cathodes for Li‐S Batteries

Pope

Aksay

2015

Advanced Energy Materials

427

330

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…4c indicates that it forms irregular stacks of interlaced nanosheet-like structure, leading to a smooth surface, densely covered with sulfur. This is probably due to the high absorption ability of SSC towards sulfur [24]. It could be suggested that SSC nanosheets may act as nanocurrent collectors for the sulfur particles and enhance the conductivity of the composite [25].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corn stalk-derived activated carbon with a stacking sheet-like structure as sulfur cathode supporter for lithium/sulfur batteries

Yuan

Yin

Zhao

et al. 2015

Ionics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A novel stacking sheet-like carbon (SSC) has been synthesized by carbonizing the corn stalks and composited with sulfur to prepare a cathode for lithium/sulfur batteries. Scanning electronic microscopy observations showed the formation of irregularly interlaced nanosheet-like structure consisting SSC with uniform sulfur coating on its surface. The SSC nanoflakes in the composite act as nanocurrent collectors, favoring the charge carrier ion transport and electrolyte diffusion. The interlaced SSC nanoflakes irregularly stack together and form a three-dimensional network, which is beneficial for both trapping soluble polysulfide intermediates and rendering the electrical conductivity of the composite electrode. A lithium cell employing this sulfur/stacking sheetlike carbon (S/SSC) composite cathode delivered an initial discharge capacity of 965 mAh g −1 at 0.2 C and retained a capacity of 743 mAh g −1 over 100 charge-discharge cycles.Even at 3.2 C rate, the lithium cell with the S/SSC composite cathode demonstrated an excellent rate capability, delivering a highly reversible discharge capacity of 418 mAh g −1.

show abstract

“…In Li-S cells, graphene has been used for the improvement in the conductivity of sulfur materials and as the reservoir for polysulfide species [62][63][64][65][66][67]. For example, Liu et al reported a novel graphene-sulfur-carbon nanofibers (G-S-CNFs) multilayer and coaxial nanocomposite as cathode materials for Li-S batteries.…”

Section: Carbon-sulfur Compositesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithium-Sulfur Battery

Lin

2015

Rechargeable Batteries

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A novel nano-sulfur/polypyrrole/graphene nanocomposite cathode with a dual-layered structure for lithium rechargeable batteries

Cited by 108 publications

References 47 publications

Structural Design of Cathodes for Li‐S Batteries

Structural Design of Cathodes for Li‐S Batteries

Corn stalk-derived activated carbon with a stacking sheet-like structure as sulfur cathode supporter for lithium/sulfur batteries

Lithium-Sulfur Battery

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About