Multifunctionality of Carbon-based Frameworks in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Compared with conventional lithium ion batteries (LIBs), lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries possess advantages such as higher theoretical energy densities and better cost efficiencies, making them promising next-generation energy storage systems. However, the commercialization of Li-S batteries is impeded by several drawbacks, including low cycling stabilities, limited sulfur utilizations, existing shuttle effects of polysulfide intermediates, serious safety concerns, as well as inferior cycling performances of lithium metal anodes. To address these issues, researchers have achieved rapid developments for sulfur cathodes and increased their attention to lithium metal anodes to facilitate the widespread application of Li-S batteries. And among the substrate materials for electrodes in Li-S batteries being developed, carbon-based materials have been especially promising because of their multifunctionality, demonstrating great potential for application in advanced energy storage and conversion systems. In this review, recent advancements of carbon-based frameworks applied to Li-S batteries will be summarized and diverse utilization methods of these carbon-based materials for both sulfur cathodes and lithium metal anodes will be provided. Future research directions and the prospects of Li-S batteries with high performance and practicability will also be discussed. Keywords

Pyrrolic‐Type Nitrogen‐Doped Hierarchical Macro/Mesoporous Carbon as a Bifunctional Host for High‐Performance Thick Cathodes for Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

“…At high loadings of pure sulfur cathodes, activation steps are typically seen in the first few cycles . Sulfur particles lack intrinsic conductivity to immediately be redox active and, therefore, only the sulfur species bound to a conductive species at the interface can be electrochemically utilized . The CV profiles of the IOP‐cell are examined at different scan rates of 0.035 and 0.075 mV s −1 to investigate the activation cycles (Figure S5, Supporting Information).…”

“…Many research efforts toward Li‐S batteries have delved on increasing the carbon content to enable conductive pathways and act as physical barriers to polysulfide shuttling . In order to integrate carbon content into the cathode, several frameworks have applied in the form of composite cathodes, coated separators, and sandwiched cathode configurations .…”

Chemical Confinement and Utility of Lithium Polysulfides in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

“…The carbon composites can be simply described as an integration of conductive carbon substrate and functionalized materials . Considering poor electronic and ionic conductivity of sulfur and lithium sulfide, it is crucial to establish conductive networks inside batteries which benefit transmission of electrons and enhance the utilization of active materials.…”

“…Utilization of renewable energy facilitates the relief of environmental pressure as well as social sustainability. As a result, the application of renewable energy boosts the large demand of energy storage systems with high energy density, long operation life and cost‐effectiveness . Therefore, the advanced energy storage devices have started to play a more important role than before.…”

“…The sulfur and the lithium sulfide are electronic and ionic insulation resulting in sluggish kinetics and limited utilization of active materials . The volume expansion of sulfur leads to the pulverization of cathode structure during repeated cycling . Among these challenges, the shuttle effects of soluble lithium polysulfides can bring about severe performance degradation, self‐discharge problems and low Coulombic efficiency .…”