2019-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS2019 Volume 12: Energy Production and Secondary Batterie
| Editors: | F. Kongoli, H. Dodds, M. Mauntz, T. Turna, K. Aifantis, A. Fox, V. Kumar |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2019 |
| Pages: | 112 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-989820-11-7 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Graphene-based lithium-sulfur batteries
Liam Bird1; Kai Xi1; Cheng-Yen Lao1; Vasant Kumar1; Andrea Ferrari1; Caterina Ducati1;1UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, Cambridge, United Kingdom;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 453
Topic: 14
Abstract:
Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have a theoretical capacity of 1675 mAhg-1[1], five times that of conventional Li-ion batteries[2], facilitated by the sulfur cathode undergoing a series of redox reactions to form lithium polysulfides (PS)[3]. However, the continuous diffusion of PS through the electrolyte results in progressive loss of electrical contact to the active material and hence poor capacity retention with repeated cycling[4, 5]. A lightweight, electrically conductive host framework compatible with scalable manufacture is therefore required to exploit sulfur’s low cost and abundance[6] in batteries with sustained high capacity.
Templated mesoporous carbons, including CMK-3, are electronically conductive and have a hierarchical porous structure suitable for constraining PS[7]. However, graphene and related materials (GRMs) are compatible with higher throughput manufacturing processes[8]. In addition to high conductivity[8], mechanical strength[8], and surface area, GRMs offer opportunities for tunable functionalisation to increase PS binding energy to the host framework[9].
Here, we investigate the use of graphene nanoplatelets synthesised by microfluidization[10] (GNPs) and graphene oxide (GO) with CMK-3 as composite sulfur hosts for Li-S batteries. We find that a composite of GNPs and CMK-3 improves the capacity of Li-S batteries, and that a composite of GO and CMK-3 improves the capacity retention of batteries for the first ~100 cycles, compared to CMK-3 alone in identical conditions. The incorporation of GNPs appears to enhance the contribution of long-chain PS (Li2Sx for 4≤x≤8) to the cell’s capacity, demonstrating improved constraint of this active material in contact with the conducting host. This improves the cycling capability of Li-S batteries, facilitating their application in electric vehicles and grid-scale renewable energy storage.
Keywords:
Cathodes; Characterisation; Electrochemistry; Energy; Graphene; Li-S; Lithium; Nanomaterials; SecondaryBattery;References:
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