Aluminum-sulfur Composites for Li-S Batteries with a High-rate Performance

Abstract

Over the past few years, lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted growing attention as an enabling technology because of their high energy density. The limitations to commercialize Li-S batteries originate from the intrinsic properties of sulfur: its poor electronic conductivity and the polysulfide shuttling effect. The aim of this research is to address these challenges by developing an additive for Li-S batteries. Aluminum (Al) powders prepared from soda cans were mixed with sulfur to form a composite with a sulfur mass loading up to 90 wt%. The electrochemical performance shows that the Al-S composite in Li-S cells exhibits a stable retention after 200 cycles and an ability to stabilize quickly (<10 cycles). Moreover, the rate performance of the Al-S composite is improved over conventional carbon additives. Post analysis suggests that Al-S surface interaction is a possible origin for this improvement.