Harnessing Heteropolar Lithium Polysulfides by Amphoteric Polymer Binder for Facile Manufacturing of Practical Li‐S Batteries

Abstract

Enabling efficient and durable charge storage under high sulfur loading and lean electrolyte remains a paramount challenge for Li‐S battery technology to truly demonstrate its commercial viability. This work reports an amphoteric polymer binder, whose negatively and positively charged moieties allow for coregulation of both lithium cations and heteropolar lithium polysulfides through multiple intermolecular interactions. These interactions and the physical properties lead to simultaneously improved Li+ transport, polysulfide adsorption and catalysis, cathode robustness and anode stability. Therefore, this multifunctional binder endows Li‐S batteries with compelling overall performances even under rigorous conditions. At low sulfur loading and copious electrolyte, the cell shows a low capacity‐fading rate of 0.056% cycle‐1 upon 700 cycles. At sulfur loading of 6.8 mg cm–2 and low E/S of 6 µL mg–1, the cell still delivers stable areal capacities between 4.2 and 4.8 mAh cm–2 in 50 cycles without obvious decay at 0.2 C. The commercial feasibility of this work is further manifested by its zero added weight, low material cost, and ease of manufacturing and scale‐up. The efficacy and simplicity of this work symbolize an example of lab‐scale battery research aiming at improved technology and manufacturing readiness level.

Dual Cross-Linked Multifunctional Binder for High-Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…6 This phenomenon deteriorates with increasing sulfur loading. Binders, a small amount in cathodes, is of vital importance in improving the shuttle effect of the LiPSs via several mechanisms: (a) interaction between unpaired electrons of electronegative atoms within the binders and lithium present in the LiPSs; 34 (b) interaction of the cations and/or anions in the binders with the LiPSs; 35,36 (c) trapping of the LiPSs via in situ electrochemical oxidation between the binders and LiPSs; 37 (d) covalent bond formation of active binders with the LiPSs. 38 To investigate the trapping capability of the CPS for LiPSs (mainly Li 2 S 6 ), PVDF, CMC, and CPS with the same weight were added to the Li 2 S 6 solution, respectively (Figure 1d).…”

In Situ Interweaved High Sulfur Loading Li–S Cathode by Catalytically Active Metalloporphyrin Based Organic Polymer Binders

“…Nowadays, the conditions with lean electrolyte and high sulfur loading are gradually regarded as vital evaluation indexes of the practical application potential of Li–S battery. [ 51 ] Based on this, we also assembled a Mn‐COP/CNT/S electrode with a relatively low E/S ratio of 8.1 µL mg −1 and a sulfur loading of 4.0 mg cm −2 , and the cell delivers a high specific capacity of 1029.9 mAh g −1 , which further stabilizes at 610.0 mAh g −1 after 100 cycles (Figure S33, Supporting Information). Even when the E/S ratio is reduced to 5.8 µL mg −1 coupling with a higher sulfur loading (5.5 mg cm −2 ), the cell can still exhibit an excellent capacity of 949.2 mAh g −1 (Figure S34, Supporting Information).…”

Synthesis of Free‐Standing CoxP/Co3(PO4)2/C Composite Nanofiber Mats and Their Characteristics as Multi‐functional Interlayers for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

“…Despite the difference in compositions, both cobalt phosphide-containing samples show similar polysulfide adsorption properties, as also confirmed from the UV-Vis spectra of solutions with similarly decreased absorbance intensity (Figure 4(a)). [40] It could be attributed to the similarity in physical properties, such as BET specific surface area and meso-to macropore volumes (Figure S2 and Table 1).…”