Turning on Lithium-Sulfur Full Batteries at -10 °C

Hun Kim; Jang-Yeon Hwang; Young-Geun Ham; Ha-Neul Choi; Muhammad Hilmy Alfaruqi; Jaekook Kim; Chong Seung Yoon; Yang-Kook Sun

doi:10.1021/acsnano.3c04213

Turning on Lithium-Sulfur Full Batteries at -10 °C

ACS Nano. 2023 Jul 25;17(14):14032-14042. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c04213. Epub 2023 Jul 10.

Authors

Hun Kim¹, Jang-Yeon Hwang^{1

2}, Young-Geun Ham¹, Ha-Neul Choi¹, Muhammad Hilmy Alfaruqi³, Jaekook Kim³, Chong Seung Yoon⁴, Yang-Kook Sun^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea.
² Department of Battery Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea.

PMID: 37428961
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c04213

Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries using Li₂S and Li-free anodes have emerged as a potential high-energy and safe battery technology. Although the operation of Li-S full batteries based on Li₂S has been demonstrated at room temperature, their effective use at a subzero temperature has not been realized due to the low electrochemical utilization of Li₂S. Here, ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) is introduced as a functional additive that allows Li-S full batteries to operate at -10 °C. The polar N-H bonds in the additive alter the activation pathway of Li₂S by inducing the dissolution of the Li₂S surface. Then, Li₂S with an amorphized surface layer undergoes the modified activation process, which consists of the disproportionation and direct conversion reaction, through which Li₂S is efficiently converted into S₈. The Li-S full battery using NH₄NO₃ delivers a reversible capacity and cycling stability over 400 cycles at -10 °C.

Keywords: Li2S cathode; electrolyte additive; full cell; lithium−sulfur batteries; low-temperature.