Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: Electrochemistry, Materials, and Prospects

Abstract

With the increasing demand for efficient and economic energy storage, Li-S batteries have become attractive candidates for the next-generation high-energy rechargeable Li batteries because of their high theoretical energy density and cost effectiveness. Starting from a brief history of Li-S batteries, this Review introduces the electrochemistry of Li-S batteries, and discusses issues resulting from the electrochemistry, such as the electroactivity and the polysulfide dissolution. To address these critical issues, recent advances in Li-S batteries are summarized, including the S cathode, Li anode, electrolyte, and new designs of Li-S batteries with a metallic Li-free anode. Constructing S molecules confined in the conductive microporous carbon materials to improve the cyclability of Li-S batteries serves as a prospective strategy for the industry in the future.

Two-dimensional layered transition metal disulphides for effective encapsulation of high-capacity lithium sulphide cathodes

“…TiS 2 possesses a combination of high conductivity 2,7 and polar Ti-S groups that can potentially interact strongly with Li 2 S/Li 2 S n species. In this work, we synthesized Li 2 S@TiS 2 core-shell nanostructures that exhibited 10 orders of magnitude higher electronic conductivity compared with pure Li 2 S. The results of ab initio simulations also show strong binding between Li 2 S and TiS 2 , with a calculated binding energy 10 times higher than that between Li 2 S and carbon-based graphene, a very common encapsulation material used in the literature 29 acetate, followed by the addition of a controlled amount of TiCl 4 precursor to react directly with some of the Li 2 S on the surface to form a TiS 2 coating (TiCl 4 þ 2Li 2 S-TiS 2 þ 4LiCl; Fig. 1a) 56 (Fig.…”

“…This value is 10 times higher than that between Li 2 S and a single layer of carbon-based graphene (0.29 eV; ref. 17), which is a very common encapsulation material used in the literature 29 . The much stronger interaction between Li 2 S and TiS 2 can be explained by their similar ionic bonding and polar nature, unlike graphene which is covalently bonded and nonpolar in nature.…”

The dual actions of modified polybenzimidazole in taming the polysulfide shuttle for long-life lithium–sulfur batteries

“…6 However, Li-S batteries are plagued with drawbacks, including poor cyclability, low coulombic efficiency and insufficient utilization of active material, which can be ascribed to the poor electric and ionic conductivity of the active sulfur material, dissolution of polysulfide (PS) intermediates in ether-based electrolyte and significant volumetric change (that is, ≈76%) during charge-discharge processes. 7 Despite the great application potential of Li-S batteries in portable electronics, electric vehicles and grid electrical energy storage, these obstacles must be overcome before their commercialization.…”

A highly efficient polysulfide mediator for lithium–sulfur batteries

“…At the same time, it is recognized that traditional lithium-ion batteries are approaching their theoretical energy density limits [1][2][3][4] . Lithium-sulfur batteries are one of the most promising candidates to satisfy emerging market demands [5][6][7] , as they possess a theoretical capacity and energy density of 1,675 mA h g À 1 and 2,500 kW kg À 1 , respectively, superior to current lithium-ion batteries 8,9 . In addition, they present an inherently low competitive cost due to the high natural abundance of sulfur.…”