Abstract
Due to its high theoretical energy density (2600 Wh kg−1), low cost, and environmental benignity, the lithium–sulfur (Li-S) battery is attracting strong interest among the various electrochemical energy storage systems. However, its practical application is seriously hampered by the so-called shuttle effect of the highly soluble polysulfides. Herein, a novel design of multifunctional sandwich-structured polymer electrolyte (polymer/cellulose nonwoven/nanocarbon) for high-performance Li-S batteries is demonstrated. It is verified that Li-S battery with this sandwich-structured polymer electrolyte delivers excellent cycling stability (only 0.039% capacity decay cycle−1 on average exceeding 1500 cycles at 0.5 C) and rate capability (with a reversible capacity of 594 mA h g−1 at 4 C). These electrochemical performances are attributed to the synergistic effect of each layer in this unique sandwich-structured polymer electrolyte including steady lithium stripping/plating, strong polysulfide absorption ability, and increased redox reaction sites. More importantly, even with high sulfur loading of 4.9 mg cm−2, Li-S battery with this sandwich-structured polymer electrolyte can deliver high initial areal capacity of 5.1 mA h cm−2. This demonstrated strategy here may open up a new era of designing hierarchical structured polymer electrolytes for high-performance Li-S batteries.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1700503 |
Journal | Advanced Science |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:H.T.Q. and J.J.Z. contributed equally to this work. This original research was financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA09010105), Think-Tank Mutual Fund of Qingdao Energy Storage Industry Scientific Research, “135” Projects Fund of CAS-QIBEBT Director Innovation Foundation, Qingdao Science and Technology Program (17-1-1-26-jch), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M612366).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Keywords
- cellulose nonwoven materials
- lithium–sulfur batteries
- multifunctional materials
- nanocarbon black
- sandwich-structured electrolytes