High-energy silicon-sulfurized poly(acrylonitrile) battery based on a nitrogen evolution reaction

Pengfei Wang; Chao Xia; Jingui Yang; Xuewei He; Kezhong Lv; Siyun Ren; Hucheng Song; Jiulin Wang; Ping He; Haoshen Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2021.10.007

High-energy silicon-sulfurized poly(acrylonitrile) battery based on a nitrogen evolution reaction

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2022 Feb 15;67(3):256-262. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.10.007. Epub 2021 Oct 13.

Authors

Pengfei Wang¹, Chao Xia¹, Jingui Yang¹, Xuewei He¹, Kezhong Lv¹, Siyun Ren¹, Hucheng Song¹, Jiulin Wang², Ping He³, Haoshen Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Center of Energy Storage Materials & Technology, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² Shanghai Electrochemical Energy Devices Research Center, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
³ Center of Energy Storage Materials & Technology, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: pinghe@nju.edu.cn.
⁴ Center of Energy Storage Materials & Technology, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: hszhou@nju.edu.cn.

PMID: 36546074
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.10.007

Abstract

The practical application of high-energy lithium-sulfur battery is plagued with two deadly obstacles. One is the "shuttle effect" originated from the sulfur cathode, and the other is the low Coulombic efficiency and security issues arising from the lithium metal anode. In addressing these issues, we propose a novel silicon-sulfurized poly(acrylonitrile) full battery. In this lithium metal-free system, the Li source is pre-loaded in the cathode, using a nitrogen evolution reaction (NER) to implant Li⁺ into the silicon/carbon anode. Sulfurized poly(acrylonitrile) based on a solid-solid conversion mechanism can fundamentally circumvent the "shuttle effect". Meanwhile, the silicon/carbon anode can achieve more efficient utilization and higher security when compared with the Li metal anode. The full cell used in this technology can deliver a capacity of 1169.3 mAh g^-1, and it can be stabilized over 100 cycles, implying its excellent electrochemical stability. Furthermore, the practical pouch cell with a high sulfur loading of 4.2 mg cm^-2 can achieve a high specific energy of 513.2 Wh kg^-1. The mechanism of the NER in cathode has also been investigated and analyzed by in situ methods. Notably, this battery design completely conforms to the current battery production technology because of the degassing of gasbag, resulting in a low manufacturing cost. This work will open the avenue to develop a lithium metal-free battery using the NER.

Keywords: High Coulombic efficiency; High specific energy; Lithium metal-free; Nitrogen evolution reaction; Silicon–sulfur battery.