Liquid Sulfur Impregnation of Microporous Carbon Accelerated by Nanoscale Interfacial Effects

Pascal, Tod A.; Villaluenga, Irune; Wujcik, Kevin H.; Devaux, Didier; Jiang, Xi; Wang, Dunyang Rita; Balsara, Nitash P.; Prendergast, David

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00249

Cited by 16 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…Generally, pore with pore diameter less than 2 nm and total surface area greater than 1000 m 2 g −1 is referred to as micropore Microporous carbon with stable electrochemical properties and high specific surface area receives extensive interest in the field of LSBs As a conductive substrate, microporous carbon can not only load more elemental sulfur and enhance the utilization of active materials but also physically confine polysulfides due to its excellent structure in charge/discharge process …”

Section: Porous Carbonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Carbon Materials for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

et al. 2018

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Lithium‐sulfur battery as one of the most promising and attractive candidate among the emerging electrical energy storage has attracted enormous attentions. It has superior characteristics of high specific energy density (2600 Wh kg−1) and high theoretical specific capacity (1675 mAh g−1), which is equal to 3–5 times of lithium‐ion batteries, and more closed to the requirement of the pure electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. Furthermore, sulfur element is inexpensive, naturally abundant, and environmentally friendly. However, the commercial application of lithium‐sulfur batteries (LSBs) still faces some major technical obstacles such as the low electrical conductivity of sulfur, the shuttle effect of polysulfides, and the drastic volume expansion during charge/discharge process. In this review paper, we focus on some of the effective strategies in boosting the electrochemical performance of LSBs through the development of sulfur/carbon composite electrode materials, including the use of porous carbons, carbon nanotubes/fibers, and graphene. The integration of carbon materials and sulfur can efficiently improve the utilization of active materials, enhance the conductivity of cathode materials, and provide a polysulfides barrier. Simultaneously, the challenges and prospects on LSBs in the near future are also presented and discussed.

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Section: Porous Carbonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Carbon Materials for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

et al. 2018

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“…The nanosphere walls are porous; BET analysis revealed that pore sizes range from 1 to 1.3 nm. 22 After sulfur impregnation, SEM and EDS was performed. Figure 1b shows a typical SEM image of the S 8 (w = 0.6)/C materials with a magnified image in the inset.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with a Block Copolymer Electrolyte Analyzed by X-ray Microtomography

Devaux

Villaluenga

Jiang

et al. 2020

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Most of the work on Lithium-sulfur (LiS) batteries use liquid electrolytes that have limited stability when coupled with Li metal anodes. We have studied LiS batteries with a solid block copolymer electrolyte which exhibits improved stability against Li anodes. The electrolyte comprises a polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (SEO) copolymer doped with a Li salt. Hollow carbon nanospheres impregnated with sulfur were used to build a composite cathode. Two types of sulfur-impregnated functionalized carbon nanospheres were used: one with carboxylic acid groups and the other with short lithium poly(4-styrenesulfonyl (trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide) (PSTFSI-Li) chains. Cells with Li 2 S 8 dissolved in the SEO based electrolyte served as the baseline. After cycling, the reason for capacity fade was determined by imaging the batteries using synchrotron hard X-ray microtomography. It is generally assumed that LiS cells fail due to dissolution of polysulfide into the liquid electrolyte, i.e., the main problems related to the cathode. In our all-solid cells, failure was primarily due to delamination of the Li foil from the polymer electrolyte layer. Delamination is also observed at the sulfur cathode. It is likely that the large changes in volume of the active materials during cycling induce delamination in all-solid LiS cells.

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“…To tackle these issues, various strategies have been proposed in the literature such as highly engineered sulfur cathodes, protected Li anodes, interlayers in the cell structure, solid- or liquid-state catalysts, lower-solubility electrolytes, and so forth. − Particularly, carbonaceous materials with excellent electronic conductivity and large specific surface area could significantly improve the cell performance when they were implemented in sulfur cathodes. − Therefore, various carbonaceous materials like hollow nanospheres, nanofibers/nanotubes, nanosheets, graphene, carbon papers and cloths, and so forth have been investigated. Carbon papers and cloths were also used as interlayers between the sulfur cathode and Li anode in the cell structure, which effectively prevented irreversible loss of polysulfides. − However, most carbonaceous materials showed poor chemical affinity for the sulfuric moieties (i.e., low sulfiphilic properties), and thus, carbonaceous materials could not effectively prevent the loss of polysulfides into the electrolyte followed by the shuttle effect or irreversible capacity decay .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots: Sulfiphilic Additives for the High-Performance Li–S Cells

Park

Moon

et al. 2021

ACS Appl. Energy Mater.

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The lithium–sulfur cell is considered to be the most promising next-generation energy storage system. However, the practical use of Li–S batteries is hindered by several problems such as poor cycle retention, low Coulombic efficiency, low sulfur loading, and so forth. We herein for the first-time propose nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots as the sulfiphilic additive for the advancement of Li–S cell performance. We carry out direct decoration of conducting additives and carbon cloth interlayers with graphene quantum dots and nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots, which are evaluated in Li–S cells. Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots exhibit strong sulfiphilic properties, and therefore, they anchor the liquid-phase polysulfides. The Li–S cell using the nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dot-decorated carbon cloth interlayer shows a discharge capacity of 1454.4 mA h gS –1 at 0.1 C and a capacity retention of 98.2% at 0.5 C after 300 cycles even with a sulfur loading of 6.0 mg S cm–2. Our study demonstrates that the nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dot is a promising additive, which can improve the viability of Li–S cells for the next generation of energy storage systems.

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Liquid Sulfur Impregnation of Microporous Carbon Accelerated by Nanoscale Interfacial Effects

Cited by 16 publications

References 34 publications

Review of Carbon Materials for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

Review of Carbon Materials for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with a Block Copolymer Electrolyte Analyzed by X-ray Microtomography

Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots: Sulfiphilic Additives for the High-Performance Li–S Cells

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