A bifunctional lithium polysilicate as highly efficient adhesion agent and anchoring host for long-lifespan Li-S battery

Fanghui Wang; Qian Zhang; Zenghua Liu; Mingxiu Hou; Zhenjiang Li; Jie Liu; Rongfang Wang; Lei Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.026

A bifunctional lithium polysilicate as highly efficient adhesion agent and anchoring host for long-lifespan Li-S battery

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jan;629(Pt A):1045-1054. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.026. Epub 2022 Sep 7.

Authors

Fanghui Wang¹, Qian Zhang², Zenghua Liu², Mingxiu Hou², Zhenjiang Li³, Jie Liu⁴, Rongfang Wang¹, Lei Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco-chemical Process and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
² Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco-chemical Process and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco-chemical Process and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco-chemical Process and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: jie.liu@qust.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco-chemical Process and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; Shandong Engineering Research Center for Marine Environment Corrosion and Safety Protection, College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: inorchemwl@126.com.

PMID: 36154971
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.09.026

Abstract

The development of Li-S battery has been seriously hindered by the shuttle effect of polysulfides and the mechanical instability of the sulfur electrode during cycling. Constructing strong-affinity oxide hosts is an effective way to anchor the polysulfides. And then the oxide hosts with sulfur active materials need additional binder to adhere them to the current collector, and they also possess poor ability to suppress the volume change of sulfur cathode. Herein, a bifunctional lithium polysilicate (Li₂O·nSiO₂, LSO) as highly efficient adhesion agent and anchoring host has been exploited for long-lifespan Li-S battery. Like other oxide hosts, density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that LSO also displays strong chemisorption effect towards polysulfides. Specially, the LSO shows impressive adhesive property and mechanical strength, which make it act as a robust binder to improve the mechanical stability of the sulfur electrode. The sulfur cathode with LSO as the highly efficient adhesion agent and anchoring host can give an excellent cycling stability with ∼ 0.076 % capacity decay per cycle at 0.5C for 500 cycles. This work lights a new way to improve the chemical and mechanical stability of sulfur cathodes.

Keywords: Adhesion agent; Anchoring host; Interfacial adsorption; Li-S battery; Lithium polysilicate.