Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiangru Si, Ruijie Zhu, Yang Yang, Huijun Yang, Nan Sheng, Chunyu Zhu
Summary: The addition of freeze-drying treatment to the cathode preparation process allows the obtainment of MnO2 cathodes with hierarchically porous structures, leading to enhanced charge/discharge performance in aqueous Zn-MnO2 batteries.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Matthew Li, Jun Lu, Khalil Amine
Summary: The field of lithium-sulfur batteries has greatly benefited from advancements in nanotechnology, with nanoporous material, heterogeneous nanocomposite, and hierarchical electrode developments being key milestones. This review highlights the specific roles of nanotechnology in lithium-sulfur batteries, discussing relevant testing conditions and future directions for electrocatalysis.
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Mingyue Wang, Zhongchao Bai, Ting Yang, Chuanhao Nie, Xun Xu, Yunxiao Wang, Jian Yang, Shixue Dou, Nana Wang
Summary: Lithium-sulfur batteries have great potential for energy storage systems due to their high theoretical energy density and abundance of sulfur. However, the low actual energy density remains a challenge for their practical applications. This review highlights recent progress in increasing the sulfur loading of Li-S batteries and discusses key materials such as sulfur hosts and separators.
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shenghan Gu, Helong Jiang, Xiangcun Li, Yan Dai, Wenji Zheng, Xiaobin Jiang, Gaohong He
Summary: A hierarchically porous membrane loaded with fully dispersed single-layered MXene was fabricated for a high-areal-capacity Li-S battery. The membrane exhibited a 3D hierarchical porous structure that strengthened Li+ and electron transportation, accommodated sulfur volumetric expansion, enabled high sulfur loading, and provided ample active sites for LiPSs anchoring. The uniformly dispersed Ti3C2Tx nanosheets in the membrane prevented restacking of the MXene layer, contributing to enhanced Li+ diffusion and LiPSs adsorption and catalysis. The Li-S batteries showed high specific capacity and cycle stability at high sulfur loading. This facile strategy provides insights for the design of novel cathode materials for high-areal-capacity Li-S batteries.
ENERGY STORAGE MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tong Wang, Dan Luo, Yongguang Zhang, Zhen Zhang, Jiayi Wang, Guoliang Cui, Xin Wang, Aiping Yu, Zhongwei Chen
Summary: The hierarchical porous MXene microspheres fabricated through spray drying and chemical etching strategies offer uniform sulfur distribution, prevent restacking of MXene sheets, and provide abundant active edges for strong lithium polysulfide adsorption. These structural advantages enhance cycling and rate performances of sulfur cathode, even under high sulfur loading and low electrolyte content.
Article
Electrochemistry
E. Thauer, G. S. Zakharova, L. F. Deeg, Q. Zhu, R. Klingeler
Summary: V2O3/C composites were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal thermolysis method, showing excellent electrochemical performance with high specific capacity, great cyclic stability, and high rate capability. The type of carboxylic acid used as a carbon source affects the structure and performance of the V2O3/C composites.
ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Zirui Zhao, Wenjuan Yin, Hong Li, Yiming Jiao, Dongyuan Lei, Yuyun Li, Wei Bai, Mingwu Xiang
Summary: This study presents a facile method to prepare sucrose derived porous carbon with abundant pores and good conductivity using inexpensive FeCl3 and ZnCl2 as activators. The resulting carbon material exhibits hierarchical porous structure, high specific surface area, and good electrical conductivity, making it a promising sulfur host for lithium sulfur batteries.
MICROPOROUS AND MESOPOROUS MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Xinran Hu, Helong Jiang, Qiao Hou, Miao Yu, Xiaobin Jiang, Gaohong He, Xiangcun Li
Summary: Researchers have successfully fabricated a three-dimensional holey CNT/sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (CNT@SPAN) freestanding cathode, which features a unique porous framework design that facilitates ion and electron transportation and withstands the volume expansion of sulfur. The initial activation mechanism of the Li-SPAN battery was explored using electrochemical impedance analysis and frontier molecular orbit theory. This work has significantly improved the performance of Li-SPAN batteries, achieving a maximum areal capacity of 10.21 mAh cm(-2) at an ultrahigh mass loading and an excellent rate capacity of 761.7 mAh g(-1) at 4 C, providing a promising method for commercial applications of Li-S batteries.
ACS MATERIALS LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Yajun Yang, Juncheng Qiu, Lei Cai, Canbin Liu, Shuxing Wu, Xiujuan Wei, Dong Luo, Bingkai Zhang, Xulai Yang, Kwun Nam Hui, Jing Liu, Zhan Lin
Summary: A water-soluble binder with trifunctions, covalently cross-linked quaternary ammonium cationic starch (c-QACS), has been developed to address the issues in conventional polymer binder in a lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery. The c-QACS binder remarkably improves Li+ ion transfer capacity, possesses admirable lithium polysulfide-trapping capability, and effectively maintains the electrode integrity.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jiaxin Ma, Shuanghao Zheng, Feng Zhou, Yuanyuan Zhu, Pratteek Das, Rong Huang, Liangzhu Zhang, Xiao Wang, Hui Wang, Yi Cui, Zhong-Shuai Wu
Summary: The revival of Li metal batteries is enabled by the use of 3D printed conductive Ti3C2Tx MXene scaffolds and porous LiFePO4 lattices, which allows for high-mass-loading LMBs with prolonged lifespan and high energy density. The combination of the exceptional lithiophilic feature of Ti3C2Tx and the hierarchically conductive LiFePO4 framework enables the stable deposition of metallic Li and improves the performance of the battery.
ENERGY STORAGE MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Khagesh Tanwar, Xin Tan, Md Mokhlesur Rahman, Srikanth Mateti, Pavel Cizek, Paramita Koley, Chunping Hou, Sean C. Smith, Ying (Ian) Chen
Summary: The novel molybdenum sulfide-carbon composite thin film electrodes exhibit excellent cycling performance and rate capability in Li-MSx cells, without any shuttle effect.
JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Canghai Long, Libo Li, Yuhang Shan, Mo Zhai, Xiaochuan Chen, Yangmingyue Zhao, Wenjun Cui, Da Zhou, Jintian Du
Summary: By using a new conductive carbon as the host material and a quasi-solid electrolyte with micropores and mesopores, the safety and stability of the Li-S battery system have been enhanced, resulting in a high initial specific capacity and good cycling performance.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yilin Yao, Sizhe Wang, Xiaohua Jia, Jin Yang, Yong Li, Jiaxuan Liao, Haojie Song
Summary: This study reports the preparation of a highly flexible and highly conductive MXene interlayer and investigates its application in lithium-sulfur batteries. The interlayer improves the electrochemical performance of the batteries through adsorption of lithium polysulfides, catalyzing the conversion reaction, and preventing polysulfide deposition. It exhibits excellent capacity retention and decay rate in long-term cycling tests.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Yulin Wang, Zhibo Luo, Ji Zhou, Xueying Fan, Jie Zhang, Yuncan Jia, Shang Chen, Xiaodong Meng, Christopher W. Bielawski, Jianxin Geng
Summary: This study proposes a method of covalently grafting sulfur-containing polymers to carbon nanotubes as a solution to the problems associated with sulfur cathodes in Li-S batteries. The resulting composite material effectively establishes a porous network and facilitates electron transport, suppressing the shuttle effect of polysulfides. Compared to cells prepared from elemental sulfur, the devices containing the composite material exhibit improved specific capacity and suppressed capacity fading rate.
ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Saheed A. Lateef, Marjanul Manjum, Hunter A. Mcray, William E. Mustain, Golareh Jalilvand
Summary: This study presents a simple electrode processing method for producing highly durable sulfur cathodes. By confining sulfur particles with a self-structured binder, the shuttling of soluble polysulfides is slowed down, leading to outstanding capacity retention and cyclability. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of this method make it promising for large-scale manufacturing of low-cost and durable sulfur cathodes.
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2023)