Flexible and free-standing bacterial cellulose derived cathode host and separator for lithium-sulfur batteries

Vikram Kishore Bharti; Anil Daliprasad Pathak; Chandra Shekhar Sharma; Mudrika Khandelwal

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119731

Flexible and free-standing bacterial cellulose derived cathode host and separator for lithium-sulfur batteries

Carbohydr Polym. 2022 Oct 1:293:119731. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119731. Epub 2022 Jun 13.

Authors

Vikram Kishore Bharti¹, Anil Daliprasad Pathak², Chandra Shekhar Sharma², Mudrika Khandelwal³

Affiliations

¹ Creative & Advanced Research Based on Nanomaterials (CARBON) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Kandi-502285, Sangareddy, Telangana, India; Cellulose & Composites Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Kandi-502285, Sangareddy, Telangana, India. Electronic address: ch19resch11003@iith.ac.in.
² Creative & Advanced Research Based on Nanomaterials (CARBON) Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Kandi-502285, Sangareddy, Telangana, India.
³ Cellulose & Composites Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Kandi-502285, Sangareddy, Telangana, India.

PMID: 35798427
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.119731

Abstract

This study demonstrates flexible, ultra-high rate, and long cycle life lithium‑sulfur batteries using bacterial cellulose (BC) derived cathode host as well as separator. The work also includes a new strategy to use active sulfur in the form of catholyte added directly to the electrolyte for improved sulfur utilization. The fabricated LiS cell with carbonized bacterial cellulose (CBC) as a cathode host and BC as a separator (CBC@BC) delivers an impressive capacity of 740 mAh g^-1 at 1C. It retains a capacity of 310 mAh g^-1 even at an ultra-high rate of 4C. To have commercial adoption of CBC@BC, we tested LiS cells with a high areal loading of 5 mg cm^-2. The cell shows promising electrochemical performance for 500 cycles with a capacity retention of 82 %. Furthermore, first-principle calculations are performed to understand the interaction of soluble lithium-polysulfides with bacterial cellulose-derived material.

Keywords: Bacterial cellulose; Free-standing cathode substrate; Li(2)S(6) catholyte; Lithium‑sulfur batteries; Separator.

MeSH terms

Cellulose*
Electric Power Supplies
Electrodes
Lithium*
Sulfur

Substances

Sulfur
Cellulose
Lithium