Unveiling the synergistic effect of polysulfide additive and MnO2 hollow spheres in evolving a stable cyclic performance in Li-S batteries

Syed Abdul Ahad; P Ragupathy; Soojy Ryu; Hyun-Wook Lee; Do Kyung Kim

doi:10.1039/c7cc04229a

Unveiling the synergistic effect of polysulfide additive and MnO₂ hollow spheres in evolving a stable cyclic performance in Li-S batteries

Chem Commun (Camb). 2017 Aug 11;53(62):8782-8785. doi: 10.1039/c7cc04229a. Epub 2017 Jul 21.

Authors

Syed Abdul Ahad¹, P Ragupathy², Soojy Ryu³, Hyun-Wook Lee⁴, Do Kyung Kim³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. dkkim@kaist.ac.kr and School for Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. dkkim@kaist.ac.kr and Electrochemical Power Sources Division, Fuel Cells Section Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi-630 003, India. ragupathyp@cecri.res.in.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. dkkim@kaist.ac.kr.
⁴ School for Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.

PMID: 28731089
DOI: 10.1039/c7cc04229a

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate a synergistic approach involving polar-based oxide and polysulfide additives for effectively suppressing polysulfide dissolution during cycling. The MnO₂ hollow spheres not only provide physical confinement for the polysulfide species but also enable strong chemical interactions between polysulfide species and oxides, while the added polysulfide furnishes a mass buffering effect and compensates for the capacity losses due to partial cathode dissolution during discharge. The capacity retentions of S/KB, S/KB/LiPS, S/KB/MnO₂, and S/KB/MnO₂/LiPS composite cathodes are 31%, 45%, 59%, and 91% respectively. The remarkable capacity retention of the S/KB/LiPS/MnO₂ composite electrode is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect between MnO₂ and polysulfide additives.