Issue 1, 2014

Ionic shield for polysulfides towards highly-stable lithium–sulfur batteries

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur batteries attract great attention due to their high energy density, while their real applications are still hindered by the rapid capacity degradation. Despite great efforts devoted to solving the polysulfide shuttle between the cathode and anode electrodes, it remains a serious challenge to build highly-stable lithium–sulfur batteries. Herein we demonstrate a strategy of introducing an ion selective membrane to improve the stability and coulombic efficiency of lithium–sulfur batteries. The sulfonate-ended perfluoroalkyl ether groups on the ionic separators are connected by pores or channels that are around several nanometers in size. These SO3 groups-coated channels allow ion hopping of positively charged species (Li+) but reject hopping of negative ions, such as polysulfide anions (Sn2−) in this specific case due to the coulombic interactions. Consequently, this cation permselective membrane acts as an electrostatic shield for polysulfide anions, and confines the polysulfides on the cathode side. An ultra-low decay rate of 0.08% per cycle is achieved within the initial 500 cycles for the membrane developed in this work, which is less than half that of the routine membranes. Such an ion selective membrane is versatile for various electrodes and working conditions, which is promising for the construction of high performance batteries.

Graphical abstract: Ionic shield for polysulfides towards highly-stable lithium–sulfur batteries

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jul 2013
Accepted
12 Sep 2013
First published
13 Sep 2013

Energy Environ. Sci., 2014,7, 347-353

Ionic shield for polysulfides towards highly-stable lithium–sulfur batteries

J. Huang, Q. Zhang, H. Peng, X. Liu, W. Qian and F. Wei, Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 347 DOI: 10.1039/C3EE42223B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements