Recent Development of Carbonaceous Materials for Lithium–Sulphur Batteries

Abstract

The effects of climate change are just beginning to be felt, and as such, society must work towards strategies of reducing humanity's impact on the environment. Due to the fact that energy production is one of the primary contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, it is obvious that more environmentally friendly sources of power are required. Technologies such as solar and wind power are constantly being improved through research; however, as these technologies are often sporadic in their power generation, efforts must be made to establish ways to store this sustainable energy when conditions for generation are not ideal. Battery storage is one possible supplement to these renewable energy technologies; however, as current Li-ion technology is reaching its theoretical capacity, new battery technology must be investigated. Lithium-sulphur (Li-S) batteries are receiving much attention as a potential replacement for Li-ion batteries due to their superior capacity, and also their abundant and environmentally benign active materials. In the spirit of environmental harm minimization, efforts have been made to use sustainable carbonaceous materials for applications as carbon-sulphur (C-S) composite cathodes, carbon interlayers, and carbon-modified separators. This work reports on the various applications of carbonaceous materials applied to Li-S batteries, and provides perspectives for the future development of Li-S batteries with the aim of preparing a high energy density, environmentally friendly, and sustainable sulphur-based cathode with long cycle life.Batteries 2016, 2, 33 2 of 35 new energy storage systems based on different electrochemistry is urgently needed to go beyond incremental improvements in the specific energy of existing batteries.Lithium-sulphur (Li-S) batteries have the potential advantage of breaking the storage limits of conventional LIBs. As shown in Figure 1, the gravimetric/volumetric energy densities of LIBs and Li-S batteries have been compared. On one hand, sulphur shows the highest theoretical capacity of 1675 mA·h·g −1 among solid cathode elements [1,4]. On the other hand, the matched lithium anode also owns a superior high theoretical capacity of 3861 mA·h·g −1 [5]. Thus, given that Li-S batteries operate on the basis of a stoichiometric redox chemistry between sulphur and lithium, Li-S batteries can reach a theoretical specific energy and volumetric energy density of approximately 2600 W·h·kg −1 and 2800 W·h·L −1 , respectively (based on the complete Li 2 S formation) [6]. The remarkable storage capacity permits electric vehicles to possess a driving range of~500 km after a single charge [1,3]. Moreover, sulphur is an attractive electroactive material for cathodes because it is naturally abundant, low cost, and environmentally friendly [7]. According to the above advantages of sulphur, it is anticipated that Li-S batteries will ultimately rebuild the current energy infrastructure if the technology succeeds.

A Green Route to High-Surface Area Carbons by Chemical Activation of Biomass-Based Products with Sodium Thiosulfate

“…3,[19][20][21] Thus, for example, porous carbons with a high pore volume and accessible porosity are essential for the fabrication of the cathode in Li-S batteries because they can improve the conductivity of the electrode and also serve as store for a large amount of sulfur, accommodate the volume expansion and trap a portion of the dissolved polysulfides. [22][23][24][25] In this context, the use of chemical agents to produce porous carbons with these characteristics has attracted much attention and in recent years a huge number of studies have been published in this area. Potassium hydroxide is the most popular activating agent, but other chemical substances are also employed to this end (e.g.…”

Bubble‐Sheet‐Like Interface Design with an Ultrastable Solid Electrolyte Layer for High‐Performance Dual‐Ion Batteries

“…Herein, we report a hollow interface design using nanostructured Al foil to improve the cycling stability and rate performance of a dual‐ion battery (DIB), in which the modified Al foil serves as both the anode material and the current collector, while graphite is used as the cathode. In comparison to traditional LIBs and other battery systems such as LiS and LiSi batteries, both of the cations and anions involved battery reactions enable the DIBs' work with high operation voltage and meanwhile being environment‐friendly and low cost . Our recent studies have indicated that this design can efficiently increase the gravimetric and volumetric energy densities by increasing the battery's operating voltage to as high as 4.2 V while also reducing the dead weight and dead volume of the device .…”

Polymers in Lithium‐Ion and Lithium Metal Batteries

“…Similar to the strategy used for dealing with the Si anode, researchers tried to trap S inside carbon materials, which increases conductivity while preventing PS diffusion and cracking during volume expansion. [ 221 ] Designing novel separators to stop PS diffusion and shuttling is also another strategy, which will be discussed in the section on separators. Normally, binders are used to tightly adhere electrode active materials with conductive additives to the current collector, thereby ensuring conductive pathways, which ultimately leads to improved cycling stability and long cycle life (Figure 20c).…”