Cathode materials for lithium–sulfur batteries: a practical perspective

Eftekhari, Ali; Kim, Dong-Won

doi:10.1039/c7ta00799j

Cited by 234 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 563 publications

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“…[190] In addition to the common issues such as the shuttle effect, a major problem is the high overpotentials required during charging and discharging, which appears as a large hysteresis between the charging and discharging voltages. Li-S batteries work based on the conversion mechanism of a sulfur cathode.…”

Section: Li-s Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐Energy Aqueous Lithium Batteries

Eftekhari¹

2018

Advanced Energy Materials

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146

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research, aqueous electrolytes were occasionally employed for the investigation of cathode materials instead of the conventional nonaqueous electrolytes. [9,10] It was discussed that the simplicity of an aqueous electrolyte provides a better opportunity for the fundamental studies of the process of intercalation/deintercalation of Li-ions as opposed to the nonaqueous electrolytes. For instance, although the formation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is of utmost importance for the cyclability of LIB, the significant role of the electrolyte does not allow to exclusively study the electrochemical behavior of the electrode material under consideration. The current research has specifically targeted the development of ARLBs, but in practice, most of the recent papers have followed the same line of research in investigating a limited range of cathode and anode materials in the same aqueous electrolytes. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] A possible reason is that the key advantage of ARLBs was low cost, and thus, the focus was limited to a few inexpensive materials (e.g., lithium salts). Aqueous electrolytes are definitely excellent choices for the fundamental studies of electrode materials, but the practical development of ARLBs needs overcoming the key obstacles rather than finding more cathode materials.In any case, aqueous electrolytes were occasionally used during the 2000s by various research groups, but there was no vivid plan for the development of ARLBs. These works have been extensively reviewed before, [29][30][31][32][33] and it is not aimed to repeat the general works on aqueous electrolytes here. During the recent years, new opportunities have been introduced, which can extend the stable potential window of aqueous electrolyte to the range of 3-4 V. Upon this advancement, aqueous electrolytes can fairly compete with the conventional nonaqueous electrolytes for the fabrication of cheaper and safer LIBs. On the other hand, novel designs such as self-healing [34] or flexible [16,35,36] ARLBs have paved the path for new practical potentials of aqueous electrolytes. The present paper specifically focuses on the recent advancements and attempts to foster the strategy of research to shed light on the pathway of this emerging area of research. Two factors are directly responsible for achieving a high energy density, the specific capacity, and the cell voltage. Since the former is not massively controlled by the electrolyte and the specific capacity of most electroactive Owing to the high voltage of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the dominating electrolyte is non-aqueous. The idea of an aqueous rechargeable lithium battery (ARLB) dates back to 1994, but it had attracted little attention due to the narrow stable potential window of aqueous electrolytes, which results in low energy density. However, aqueous electrolytes were employed during the 2000s for the fundamental studies of electrode materials in the absence of side reactions such as the decomposition of organic spec...

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Section: Li-s Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐Energy Aqueous Lithium Batteries

Eftekhari¹

2018

Advanced Energy Materials

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146

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“…We investigated the electrochemical properties of silica/S composite cathodes with different sulfur contentso f6 6, 80 and 90 wt %( denoted as silica/S66, silica/S80 and silica/S90), respectively.T oe valuate the electrochemical performance, galvanostatic charge and discharge cycling tests were conducted using CR2032-type coin cells. The lithiation mechanism of sulfur is am ultistep reduction reaction of sulfur during the dischargep rocess with two typical potentialp lateaus, which are related to the reduction of element sulfur to long chain lithium polysulfides at 2.4 V, and another reduction to short chain polysulfides at 2.1 V. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35] The porouss ilica frame in the Li-S batteries leads to an increase of Coulombic efficiency because of the suppression of polysulfide dissolution.T he silica/S66 cathodes exhibited highly stable cycling performances, corresponding to ac apacity retention of 82.9 %a tarate of C/2 after 100 cycles (Figure 3b). The lithiation mechanism of sulfur is am ultistep reduction reaction of sulfur during the dischargep rocess with two typical potentialp lateaus, which are related to the reduction of element sulfur to long chain lithium polysulfides at 2.4 V, and another reduction to short chain polysulfides at 2.1 V. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35] The porouss ilica frame in the Li-S batteries leads to an increase of Coulombic efficiency because of the suppression of polysulfide dissolution.T he silica/S66 cathodes exhibited highly stable cycling performances, corresponding to ac apacity retention of 82.9 %a tarate of C/2 after 100 cycles (Figure 3b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[10][11][12][13] These porous structures providem any benefits:( i) accommodation against volumec hangeo fm aterials, (ii)many reactive sites by virtue of ah igh surface area, and (iii)excellent mechanical and physical properties for nanotechnology. [29][30][31][32] The Li-S batteries have advantages including ah igh theoretical specific capacity of 1672 mA hg À1 ,ahigh energy density of 2600 Wh kg À1 and abundance of sulfur in nature. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Recently,l ithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have become promising next-generation energy storage systems which meet the requirements for portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and smart-grid energy systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[47] Metal oxides such as alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), titania (TiO 2 )a nd manganese oxide (MnO 2 )s howed the polysulfide adsorption properties via strongi nteraction between lithium polysulfide and metal oxides. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Herein, we demonstrate as ynthesis of newly designed highly porouss ilica/sulfur composite materials for high-performance Li-S batteries. When the porous host materials were used as as ulfur cathode, it exhibited excellent electrochemical properties in Li-S batter-ies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pomegranate‐Structured Silica/Sulfur Composite Cathodes for High‐Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Choi

Shin

et al. 2018

Chemistry An Asian Journal

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Porous materials have many structural advantages for energy storage and conversion devices such as rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells. When applied as a host material in lithium-sulfur batteries, porous silica materials with a pomegranate-like architecture can not only act as a buffer matrix for accommodating a large volume change of sulfur, but also suppress the polysulfide shuttle effect. The porous silica/sulfur composite cathodes exhibit excellent electrochemical performances including a high specific capacity of 1450 mA h g , a reversible capacity of 82.9 % after 100 cycles at a rate of C/2 (1 C=1672 mA g ) and an extended cyclability over 300 cycles at 1 C-rate. Furthermore, the high polysulfide adsorption property of porous silica has been proven by ex-situ analyses, showing a relationship between the surface area of silica and polysulfide adsorption ability. In particular, the modified porous silica/sulfur composite cathode, which is treated by a deep-lithiation process in the first discharge step, exhibits a highly reversible capacity of 94.5 % at 1C-rate after 300 cycles owing to a formation of lithiated-silica frames and stable solid-electrolyte-interphase layers.

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“…There have been several excellent reviews covering functional additives in Li-S batteries in recent years. [88][89][90] As reported in many previous studies, host materials with "sulfiphilic" surfaces can bind to polysulfide intermediates via strong surface-sulfur interactions, resulting in a significant suppression of the shuttle effect. However, in the case of functional binder PTMA + , it not only displays strong binding affinity to polysulfides but also provides additional catalytic activity and improves the kinetics of the cathode reaction, which is an advancement based on previous concepts.…”

Section: Polymer-based Functional Additives To Promote Polysulfide Rementioning

confidence: 90%

Review—From Nano Size Effect to In Situ Wrapping: Rational Design of Cathode Structure for High Performance Lithium−Sulfur Batteries

Chen

Shen

Wang

et al. 2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Rechargeable Li-S batteries have become attractive for next-generation energy storage technology due to their high specific energy, low cost, and materials earth abundance. However, the Li-S technology has not been successfully commercialized because of several outstanding challenges including fast capacity fading, low Coulombic efficiency, and limited rate capability. Over the past few years, considerable efforts have been devoted to solving the challenges associated with the sulfur cathode. In this mini review, we summarize our recent advances in Li-S cathodes, such as the understanding of the nano-size effect in sulfur materials, the design of polymer functional additives, and the realization of a novel in situ wrapping approach for Li-S cathodes. The current Li-S technology calls for a rational design of the Li-S cathode that can lead to excellent overall performance of Li-S batteries. Sulfur is a promising cathode material, which is highly earth abundant and with a theoretical specific capacity as high as 1672 mAh g −1 . When the sulfur cathode couples with a lithium metal anode to assemble rechargeable lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, their theoretical specific energy density can reach 2600 Wh kg −1 , which is 3-5 folds higher than those of state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries.1-3 Because of the high energy density and low cost, rechargeable Li-S batteries are promising for applications not only in consumer electronics but also in energy storage and electric vehicles. [4][5][6] Although the research on Li-S batteries has been ongoing for over three decades, two major challenges still remain in this field: one is the low specific capacity due to high electrical resistivity of elementary S and the solid reduction products ((Li 2 S 2 and Li 2 S)) in the cathodes; the other is the fast capacity fading owing to the shuttle effect, i.e. polysulfide intermediates formed during discharge/charge cycles dissolve in the electrolyte, diffuse to the anode, react with Li metal, and form insoluble Li 2 S 2 and Li 2 S at the anodic region, leading to the loss of lithium metal and sulfur cathodic materials. 7,8 In the past few years, researches have mainly focused on designing nanostructured sulfur host materials to address challenges related to poor electrical conductivity of S/Li 2 S 2 /Li 2 S.9-19 A quantum leap for the nanostructure approach was the utilization of ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 to trap sulfur, as reported by Nazar et al. in 2009. 20 The conductive mesoporous carbon framework precisely constrains the growth of sulfur within its channels and thus enables fast electronic and ionic transport. Following this work, Cui et al. designed a series of sulfur nanostructures with complicated host materials demonstrating excellent electrochemical performances.9 Various nanostructured host materials, including but not limited to carbon/sulfur, 11,14,16,17,21 polymer/sulfur, [22][23][24] and metal oxide/sulfur composites 12,25,26 have been investigated. These nanostructures provide new merits and opportunities: (1)...

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Cathode materials for lithium–sulfur batteries: a practical perspective

Abstract: The most important challenge in the practical development of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries is finding suitable cathode materials.

Cited by 234 publications

References 563 publications

High‐Energy Aqueous Lithium Batteries

High‐Energy Aqueous Lithium Batteries

Pomegranate‐Structured Silica/Sulfur Composite Cathodes for High‐Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Review—From Nano Size Effect to In Situ Wrapping: Rational Design of Cathode Structure for High Performance Lithium−Sulfur Batteries

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