Understanding of Sulfurized Polyacrylonitrile for Superior Performance Lithium/Sulfur Battery

Sheng S. Zhang
Additional contact information
Sheng S. Zhang: Electrochemistry Branch, RDRL-SED-C, Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD 20783-1197, USA

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) is one of the most important sulfurized carbon materials that can potentially be coupled with the carbonaceous anode to fabricate a safe and low cost “all carbon” lithium-ion battery. However, its chemical structure and electrochemical properties have been poorly understood. In this discussion, we analyze the previously published data in combination with our own results to propose a more reasonable chemical structure that consists of short –S x – chains covalently bonded onto cyclized, partially dehydrogenated, and ribbon-like polyacrylonitrile backbones. The proposed structure fits all previous structural characterizations and explains many unique electrochemical phenomena that were observed from the Li/SPAN cells but have not been understood clearly.

Keywords: lithium-sulfur battery; sulfur cathode; sulfurized carbon; sulfurized polyacrylonitrile; polysulfide (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: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/7/4588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/7/7/4588/ (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:7:y:2014:i:7:p:4588-4600:d:38289

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 ().