Loughborough University
Browse
Journal of Materials Chemistry A C7TA06781J (as accepted).pdf (1.85 MB)

Free-standing compact cathodes for high volumetric and gravimetric capacity Li-S batteries

Download (1.85 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2017-08-31, 16:13 authored by Cheng Hu, Caroline Kirk, Joaquin Silvestre-Albero, Francisco Rodriguez-Reinoso, Mark Biggs
Free-standing high performance Li-S battery cathodes are currently attracting significant research efforts. Loose macroporous structures have been proposed by many to improve sulfur utilization and areal capacity. However, their low cathode sulfur densities and high electrolyte fractions lead to low cell volumetric and gravimetric capacities. We report here a compact free-standing Li-S cathode structure that delivers areal, volumetric and gravimetric capacities all exceed those of typical Li-ion batteries. The cathodes, formed by pressure filtration of the constituents, are composed of highly micro/mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres (NCNSs) embedded in the macropores of a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) network to form a dense structure. The MWCNT network facilitates low cathode impedance. The NCNSs maximize sulfur utilization and immobilization. These collectively result in high cathode volumetric capacity (1106 mAh cm-3) and low electrolyte requirement (6 µL mg-1 of sulfur), which together leads to high cell-level gravimetric capacity. Stable long-term cycling at 0.3 C (2.5 mA cm-2 for 5 mg cm-2 areal sulfur-loading) has also been achieved, with the areal and volumetric capacities of the best remaining above typical Li-ion values over 270 cycles and the per-cycle capacity fading being only 0.1%. The facile preparation means significant potential for large scale use.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Chemistry

Published in

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Volume

5

Issue

37

Pages

19924 - 19933

Citation

HU, C. ... et al, 2017. Free-standing compact cathodes for high volumetric and gravimetric capacity Li-S batteries. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5 (37), pp. 19924-19933.

Publisher

© Royal Society of Chemistry

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-08-24

Publication date

2017-08-25

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Journal of Materials Chemistry A and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TA06781J . This paper maynot be shared publicly via a scholarly communication network that has not signed up to STM sharing principles.

ISSN

2050-7488

eISSN

2050-7496

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC