Lithium–Sulfur Batteries Meet Electrospinning: Recent Advances and the Key Parameters for High Gravimetric and Volume Energy Density

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have been regarded as a promising next‐generation energy storage technology for their ultrahigh theoretical energy density compared with those of the traditional lithium‐ion batteries. However, the practical applications of Li–S batteries are still blocked by notorious problems such as the shuttle effect and the uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrites. Recently, the rapid development of electrospinning technology provides reliable methods in preparing flexible nanofibers materials and is widely applied to Li–S batteries serving as hosts, interlayers, and separators, which are considered as a promising strategy to achieve high energy density flexible Li–S batteries. In this review, a fundamental introduction of electrospinning technology and multifarious electrospinning‐based nanofibers used in flexible Li–S batteries are presented. More importantly, crucial parameters of specific capacity, electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio, sulfur loading, and cathode tap density are emphasized based on the proposed mathematic model, in which the electrospinning‐based nanofibers are used as important components in Li–S batteries to achieve high gravimetric (WG) and volume (WV) energy density of 500 Wh kg−1 and 700 Wh L−1, respectively. These systematic summaries not only provide the principles in nanofiber‐based electrode design but also propose enlightening directions for the commercialized Li–S batteries with high WG and WV.

Self‐Supporting Carbon Nanofibers with Ni‐Single‐Atoms and Uniformly Dispersed Ni‐Nanoparticles as Scalable Multifunctional Hosts for High Energy Density Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

“…Among the aforementioned structures, self-supporting carbon nanofibers (CNF) prepared by electrospinning are widely used in the construction of high-performance sulfur hosting electrodes due to their high conductivity and well-established large-scale preparation methods. [14] Accordingly, incorporating catalytic sites on easy-to-infiltrate CNF represents a promising strategy toward high performance sulfur cathodes with a high sulfur loading and low E/S.…”

Complex permittivity‐dependent plasma confinement‐assisted growth of asymmetric vertical graphene nanofiber membrane for high‐performance Li‐S full cells

“…With the rapid evolution of smart grids, electronic vehicles, and smart devices, higher capacity and energy density storage systems are urgently needed 1–6 . As one of the most prospective candidates, lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) batteries have been intensively studied, owing to their structural similarity to Li‐ion batteries but high energy density (2600 Wh kg −1 ), and low environmental impact of sulfur 7–12 . However, the practical application of a Li‐S battery with high‐energy density will only be realized at the conditions of low negative/positive (N/P) and electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratios 13–17 .…”

Environmental Solid Waste‐derived Carbon for Advanced Rechargeable Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries: A Review

“…At the cathode, there are three main hindrances, including: (i) the bad conductivity of sulfur for electrons, which depressed the kinetics and restrained the utilization of the active material, (ii) the dissolution of lithium polysulfides causes the pulverization of the cathode and result in the shuttle effect, and (iii) upon lithiation, severe volumetric expansion of sulfur electrode (about 80 %), bring about a low active material utilization, rapid capacity decay and low coulombic efficiency. [8][9] Besides the challenges of the sulfur cathode, the use of lithium as anode also leads to a high concern with safety and energy density decay. [10] To solve these challenges, many efforts have been made to design sulfur host materials, new electrolytes, separators, and binders to enhance the utilization of the active material and cycle stability of LiÀ S batteries.…”