Lithium/Sulfur Secondary Batteries: A Review

Abstract

Lithium batteries based on elemental sulfur as the cathode-active material capture great attraction due to the high theoretical capacity, easy availability, low cost and non-toxicity of sulfur. Although lithium/sulfur (Li/S) primary cells were known much earlier, the interest in developing Li/S secondary batteries that can deliver high energy and high power was actively pursued since early 1990's. A lot of technical challenges including the low conductivity of sulfur, dissolution of sulfurreduction products in the electrolyte leading to their migration away from the cathode, and deposition of solid reaction products on cathode matrix had to be tackled to realize a high and stable performance from rechargeable Li/S cells. This article presents briefly an overview of the studies pertaining to the different aspects of Li/S batteries including those that deal with the sulfur electrode, electrolytes, lithium anode and configuration of the batteries.

Directly Coating a Multifunctional Interlayer on the Cathode via Electrospinning for Advanced Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…The first reductive peak at ∼2.3 V represents the conversion from solid sulfur to the soluble LiPSs (Li 2 S x , 4 ≤ x ≤ 8), and the second reductive peak at ∼2.0 V reflects the formation of insoluble products (Li 2 S 2 /Li 2 S). The oxidation peak at ∼2.5 V corresponds to the reaction from Li 2 S 2 /Li 2 S to solid sulfur. , No additional new peak is detected after coating PAN-NC fibers, which reflects the electrochemical stability during cycling. Notably, the positions of the reduction/oxidation peaks show a slight different between the sulfur cathode and the PAN-NC@cathode.…”

Carbon-containing electrospun nanofibers for lithium–sulfur battery: Current status and future directions

“…However, relatively stable Fe 3 C [168] and other nanoparticles are often formed in the CENFs, and the current process still needs to be improved. (5) The mechanism analysis of electrochemically active sites in the CENFs for improving the performance of LSBs, including the plating/stripping process of Li nucleation sites, the criteria of LiPSs confinement and the catalytic conversion principle of charge-discharge intermediates, etc., should be further studied using the latest experimental and theoretical tools. (6) The flexibility of CENFs makes them perfect candidates to prepare freestanding, self-supporting, flexible and multiscale components for LSBs that are applied to wearable and portable electronic devices.…”

“…Lithium ion batteries (LIBs), devices that realizes stable conversion of electrical energy and chemical energy through the intercalation of lithium ions [1,2], have dominated the energy revolution in the last century [3]. Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have become a new favorite topic of research, due to their low potential [4,5], high theoretical energy density (1675 mAh g À1 and 2600 Wh kg À1 , respectively) and environment-friendly cathode material (sulfur). For these reasons, they could succeed lithium-ion cells.…”

Lithium Bond-Enhanced Capacity of Dipyridyl Polysulfides for LSBs

“…High capacity density is a main reason that lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have received high attention. − However, the capacity fading caused by the shuttle effect and the dissolution of polysulfides has prevented them from achieving the ideal specific capacity, which is one of the main reasons hindering their commercial application. , This is also the direction that researchers have been working hard in their research. Organic sulfide molecules with high sulfur content are a class of potential cathode.…”