The lithium–sulfur battery is a promising next‐generation rechargeable battery system which promises to be less expensive and potentially fivefold more energy dense than current Li‐ion technologies. This can only be achieved by improving the sulfur utilization in thick, high areal loading cathodes while minimizing capacity fading to realize high practical energy densities and long cycle‐life. This study reports a simple method to fabricate a high capacity, high loading cathode with one of the highest cycle‐stabilities reported. It is demonstrated that sulfur sols formed by crashing dissolved elemental sulfur into water are trapped between graphene oxide sheets when flocculated with polyethyleneimine. Low temperature, hydrothermal treatment produces a conductive, partially covalent composite exhibiting outstanding cycle‐stability. Using this method, sulfur can be uniformly distributed at fractions as high as 75.7 wt%. Electrodes with high areal sulfur loadings (up to ≈5.4 mg cm−2), prepared using these composites, lead to projected high cell level practical energy densities of 400 Wh kg−1. The electrodes demonstrate negligible capacity loss over 250 cycles at 0.15 C and only 0.028% capacity loss per cycle over 810 cycles at 0.75 C. Eventual capacity fading is found to be linked to degradation of lithium‐metal anode suggesting that the cathode material remains stable over even more extended cycling.

Despite silicon being a promising candidate for next-generation lithium-ion battery anodes, self-pulverization and the formation of an unstable solid electrolyte interface, caused by the large volume expansion during lithiation/delithiation, have slowed its commercialization. In this work, we expand on a controllable approach to wrap silicon nanoparticles in a crumpled graphene shell by sealing this shell with a polydopamine-based coating. This provides improved structural stability to buffer the volume change of Si, as demonstrated by a remarkable cycle life, with anodes exhibiting a capacity of 1038 mA h/g after 200 cycles at 1 A/g. The resulting composite displays a high capacity of 1672 mA h/g at 0.1 A/g and can still retain 58% when the current density increases to 4 A/g. A systematic investigation of the impact of spray-drying parameters on the crumpled graphene morphology and its impact on battery performance is also provided.

Current lithium-ion batteries consist of a graphite anode and a metal oxide cathode. Due to their relatively high energy density and rechargeability, they have enabled various applications over the past few decades. However, significant improvements to battery cost, performance, and safety for applications such as vehicle electrification require a shift to next-generation materials, such as silicon as an anode which offers higher capacity, as well as solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) which are non-flammable. Both of these technologies currently suffer challenges which have prevented their widespread adoption. Silicon suffers low conductivity, and large volume change on each cycle, subsequently causing loss in electrical contact and the formation of an unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) each cycle. This project aims to solve these challenges by wrapping silicon nanoparticles and a sacrificial spacing material with crumpled graphene sheets using a scalable, spray drying method, and coupling it with a solid electrolyte. The graphene shell provides electrical contact with the silicon and space for its expansion during lithiation. The solid electrolyte provides a safer alternative to liquid electrolytes, and further reduces the SEI formation which, with a liquid electrolyte, can leak into such crumpled structures. In this work we will present our initial results concerning how the spacing material affects the structure and how the overall structure can be modified by spray drying parameters to determine optimal conditions for capacity and cycle-life using, first, at typical, organic carbonate-based electrolyte. We will explore different spacing material candidates such as chitosan which, upon heat treatment of the sample, would not only provide space for the expansion of silicon, but the residual nitrogen-doped carbon would also act as a conductive filler inside the crumpled structure. Furthermore, we will investigate various binder systems and their impact on cycle-stability including polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyacrylic acid (PAA), sodium alginate (SA), and cross-linked SA. Based on preliminary, both PAA and SA are shown to have improved performance compared to PVDF as well as higher cycle life, however, SA forms smoother, thinner electrode films. Cross-linked SA is also shown to increase the cycling life and decrease the capacity loss per cycle. We then explore powder mixing and solution infiltration methods to introduce high conductivity SSEs and their performance when coupled to the graphene-wrapped silicon anode structures.

Silicon anodes are thought to soon replace graphite in next-generation Li-ion batteries due to silicon’s high capacity (3590 mAh/g for the Li15Si4 alloy at room temperature), availability and natural abundance. However, lithiation of silicon causes a large volume expansion (~300%) which can cause pulverization of the primary silicon particles, cracking and delamination of the bulk electrode and the formation of an unstable solid-electrolyte interface which must rebuild upon each cycle. Some combination of these effects leads to rapid anode failure via electrical isolation of active material and/or electrolyte depletion. To mitigate these challenges, clusters of silicon nanoparticles can be wrapped with flexible 2D-materials like graphene which can potentially act as a dimensionally and electrochemically stable, permeable barrier layers. This can be achieved in a scalable way via spray drying of aqueous dispersions of graphene oxide and silicon. In this talk, I will describe recent work from our group which aims to introduce a controlled amount of void space within the graphene protected silicon structures with the aim of engineering zero-strain silicon/carbon anode particles. In the absence of void space control, capillary forces acting during the spray drying process tightly wrap graphene around silicon clusters leaving little room for volume expansion. In one case, void space is introduced via incorporation of sacrificial polystyrene nanoparticles within the core by co-spray drying silicon, polystyrene and graphene oxide. In a second case, we do not use a sacrificial material but, instead, incorporate a responsive, cross-linked hydrogel within the core which can be expanded upon hydration to increase the volume of the graphene shell. When dehydrated, the gel shrinks to generate the required void space and acts as a Li-ion conducting, elastic binder within the core. In both cases, I will describe the systematic evolution of the crumpled graphene microstructure and its impact on anode performance in both half-cells and full Li-ion batteries.