A high-energy sulfur cathode in carbonate electrolyte by eliminating polysulfides via solid-phase lithium-sulfur transformation

Xia Li, Mohammad Banis, Andrew Lushington, Xiaofei Yang, Qian Sun, Yang Zhao, Changqi Liu, Qizheng Li, Biqiong Wang, Wei Xiao, Changhong Wang, Minsi Li, Jianwen Liang, Ruying Li, Yongfeng Hu, Lyudmila Goncharova, Huamin Zhang, Tsun-Kong Sham and Xueliang Sun ()
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Xia Li: University of Western Ontario
Mohammad Banis: University of Western Ontario
Andrew Lushington: University of Western Ontario
Xiaofei Yang: University of Western Ontario
Qian Sun: University of Western Ontario
Yang Zhao: University of Western Ontario
Changqi Liu: University of Western Ontario
Qizheng Li: University of Western Ontario
Biqiong Wang: University of Western Ontario
Wei Xiao: University of Western Ontario
Changhong Wang: University of Western Ontario
Minsi Li: University of Western Ontario
Jianwen Liang: University of Western Ontario
Ruying Li: University of Western Ontario
Yongfeng Hu: Canadian Light Source
Lyudmila Goncharova: University of Western Ontario
Huamin Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tsun-Kong Sham: University of Western Ontario
Xueliang Sun: University of Western Ontario

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Carbonate-based electrolytes demonstrate safe and stable electrochemical performance in lithium-sulfur batteries. However, only a few types of sulfur cathodes with low loadings can be employed and the underlying electrochemical mechanism of lithium-sulfur batteries with carbonate-based electrolytes is not well understood. Here, we employ in operando X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy to shed light on a solid-phase lithium-sulfur reaction mechanism in carbonate electrolyte systems in which sulfur directly transfers to Li2S without the formation of linear polysulfides. Based on this, we demonstrate the cyclability of conventional cyclo-S8 based sulfur cathodes in carbonate-based electrolyte across a wide temperature range, from −20 °C to 55 °C. Remarkably, the developed sulfur cathode architecture has high sulfur content (>65 wt%) with an areal loading of 4.0 mg cm−2. This research demonstrates promising performance of lithium-sulfur pouch cells in a carbonate-based electrolyte, indicating potential application in the future.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06877-9

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