A New Graphitic Nitride and Reduced Graphene Oxide-Based Sulfur Cathode for High-Capacity Lithium-Sulfur Cells

Artur M. Suzanowicz, Youngjin Lee, Hao Lin, Otavio J. J. Marques, Carlo U. Segre and Braja K. Mandal
Additional contact information
Artur M. Suzanowicz: Department of Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
Youngjin Lee: Department of Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
Hao Lin: Department of Physics & CSRRI, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
Otavio J. J. Marques: Department of Physics & CSRRI, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
Carlo U. Segre: Department of Physics & CSRRI, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
Braja K. Mandal: Department of Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries can provide at least three times higher energy density than lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries. However, Li-S batteries suffer from a phenomenon called the polysulfide shuttle (PSS) that prevents the commercialization of these batteries. The PSS has several undesirable effects, such as depletion of active materials from the cathode, deleterious reactions between the lithium anode and electrolyte soluble lithium polysulfides, resulting in unfavorable coulombic efficiency, and poor cycle life of the battery. In this study, a new sulfur cathode composed of graphitic nitride as the polysulfide absorbing material and reduced graphene oxide as the conductive carbon host has been synthesized to rectify the problems associated with the PSS effect. This composite cathode design effectively retains lithium polysulfide intermediates within the cathode structure. The S@RGO/GN cathode displayed excellent capacity retention compared to similar RGO-based sulfur cathodes published by other groups by delivering an initial specific capacity of 1415 mA h g −1 at 0.2 C. In addition, the long-term cycling stability was outstanding (capacity decay at the rate of only 0.2% per cycle after 150 cycles).

Keywords: Li-S cells; reduced graphene oxide; graphitic nitride; polysulfide shuttle; polysulfide absorbing material; sulfur cathode composite (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/702/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/702/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:3:p:702-:d:727883

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().