Changhyeon Kim

Lithium/Sulfur Secondary Batteries: A Review

Lithium batteries based on elemental sulfur as the cathode-active material capture great attraction due to the high theoretical capacity, easy availability, low cost and non-toxicity of sulfur. Although lithium/sulfur (Li/S) primary cells were known much earlier, the interest in developing Li/S secondary batteries that can deliver high energy and high power was actively pursued since early 1990’s. A lot of technical challenges including the low conductivity of sulfur, dissolution of sulfurreduction products in the electrolyte leading to their migration away from the cathode, and deposition of solid reaction products on cathode matrix had to be tackled to realize a high and stable performance from rechargeable Li/S cells. This article presents briefly an overview of the studies pertaining to the different aspects of Li/S batteries including those that deal with the sulfur electrode, electrolytes, lithium anode and configuration of the batteries.

Initial Discharge Behavior of an Ultra High Loading 3D Sulfur Cathode for a Room-Temperature Na/S Battery.

A 3D sulfur cathode for a large-scale room-temperature (RT) Na/S battery with a high sulfur loading of 14.63 mg cm-2 was fabricated. The first discharge was tested in order to understand the macroscopic changes. A first discharge capacity of 865 mAh g-1 was obtained at 1/1000 C-rate along with a discharge curve with two clear plateaus at 2.29 V and 1.78 V, respectively. A visual change occurs in the 3D sulfur cathode. A thick layer of discharge products at the solid electrolyte separator face of the 3D sulfur cathode was observed and analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).