Metal/nanocarbon layer current collectors enhanced energy efficiency in lithium-sulfur batteries

Jia-Qi Huang; Pei-Yan Zhai; Hong-Jie Peng; Wan-Cheng Zhu; Qiang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2017.09.007

Metal/nanocarbon layer current collectors enhanced energy efficiency in lithium-sulfur batteries

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2017 Sep 30;62(18):1267-1274. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2017.09.007. Epub 2017 Sep 15.

Authors

Jia-Qi Huang¹, Pei-Yan Zhai², Hong-Jie Peng³, Wan-Cheng Zhu⁴, Qiang Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Shandong 273165, China.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Qufu Normal University, Shandong 273165, China.
⁵ Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: zhang-qiang@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 36659455
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2017.09.007

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries with intrinsic merits in high theoretical energy density are the most promising candidate as the next-generation power sources. The strategy to achieve a high utilization of active materials with high energy efficiency is strongly requested for practical applications with less energy loss during repeated cycling. In this contribution, a metal/nanocarbon layer current collector is proposed to enhance the redox reactions of polysulfides in a working Li-S cell. Such a concept is demonstrated by coating graphene-carbon nanotube hybrids (GNHs) on routine aluminum (Al) foil current collectors. The interfacial conductivity and adhesion between the current collector and active material are significantly enhanced. Such novel cell configuration with metal/nanocarbon layer current collectors affords abundant Li ions for rapid redox reactions with small overpotential. Consequently, the Li-S cells with nanostructured current collectors exhibit an initial discharge capacity of 1,113mAhg^-1 at 0.5C, which is ∼300mAhg^-1 higher than those without a GNH coating layer. The capacity retention is 73% for cells with GNH after 300 cycles. A reduced voltage hysteresis and a high energy efficiency of ca. 90% are therefore achieved. Moreover, the Al/GNH layer current collectors are easily implanted into current cell assembly process for energy storage devices based on complex multi-electron redox reactions (e.g., Li-S batteries, Li-O₂ batteries, fuel cells, and flow batteries).

Keywords: Energy efficiency; Lithium-sulfur battery; Nanostructured current collectors; Polysulfides; Pouch cell.