Non-encapsulation approach for high-performance Li–S batteries through controlled nucleation and growth

Huilin Pan, Junzheng Chen, Ruiguo Cao, Vijay Murugesan, Nav Nidhi Rajput, Kee Sung Han, Kristin Persson, Luis Estevez, Mark H. Engelhard, Ji-Guang Zhang, Karl T. Mueller, Yi Cui, Yuyan Shao () and Jun Liu ()
Additional contact information
Huilin Pan: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Junzheng Chen: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Ruiguo Cao: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Vijay Murugesan: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Nav Nidhi Rajput: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Kee Sung Han: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Kristin Persson: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Luis Estevez: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Mark H. Engelhard: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Ji-Guang Zhang: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Karl T. Mueller: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Yi Cui: Stanford University, Stanford
Yuyan Shao: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Jun Liu: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Nature Energy, 2017, vol. 2, issue 10, 813-820

Abstract: Abstract High-surface-area, nanostructured carbon is widely used for encapsulating sulfur and improving the cyclic stability of Li–S batteries, but the high carbon content and low packing density limit the specific energy that can be achieved. Here we report an approach that does not rely on sulfur encapsulation. We used a low-surface-area, open carbon fibre architecture to control the nucleation and growth of the sulfur species by manipulating the carbon surface chemistry and the solvent properties, such as donor number and Li+ diffusivity. Our approach facilitates the formation of large open spheres and prevents the production of an undesired insulating sulfur-containing film on the carbon surface. This mechanism leads to ~100% sulfur utilization, almost no capacity fading, over 99% coulombic efficiency and high energy density (1,835 Wh kg−1 and 2,317 Wh l−1). This finding offers an alternative approach for designing high-energy and low-cost Li–S batteries through controlling sulfur reaction on low-surface-area carbon.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0005-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nat:natene:v:2:y:2017:i:10:d:10.1038_s41560-017-0005-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-017-0005-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().