South Korea R & D of new lithium-sulfur battery energy density is 2 times the lithium battery

Recently, a research and development team from Nanyang University announced that it successfully developed a new type of lithium-sulfur battery, which has the same charge-discharge cycle performance compared with lithium ion batteries currently used in commercial applications , While its energy density can reach more than twice the lithium-ion battery. The R & D team is a diversified research group jointly established by South Korea and Italy. In the above highly reliable lithium-sulfur batteries, researchers used a highly reversible dual-mode sulfur cathode (dual-mode sulfur anode refers to the solid state Sulfur electrode and sulfurized electrolyte) and a lithiated silicon / silicon oxide nanoanode.

The lithium-sulfur battery R & D team published the research results in the American Chemical Society's Nano Letters magazine, in which researchers described in detail the range of performance of the lithium-sulfur battery, including the relatively high Energy density, excellent charge-discharge efficiency, excellent charge-discharge cycle life, while the battery charge and discharge times up to 500 times the original capacity of 85% can still achieve 750 mAh / g -1000 mAh / g Energy Density. It is precisely because the new lithium-sulfur battery with a new anode design and cathode optimization structure makes the battery to achieve the above advanced performance.

Due to the low sulfur cost and rich content of lithium-sulfur batteries, and the theoretical capacity density of lithium-sulfur batteries can reach 1675 mAh / g (about 2500 watt hours / kg), lithium-sulfur batteries will likely become the next generation of batteries Application Technology. In addition, the application of lithium-sulfur battery also has many well-known difficulties and challenges, including the lithium-sulfur battery active material utilization is low, in addition lithium-sulfur battery in the work of soluble lithium sulfide may also reduce the sulfur electrode stability.

Lee from the research team said in the article: "There is currently a consistent advance in the optimal design for the sulfur electrode, where the sulfur-stripping process can be accomplished by using a conductive carbon matrix with a metal-organic framework and the proper electrolyte. A number of research organizations have reported that lithium sulfide can be added to the lithium-sulfur battery can effectively improve the charge-discharge cycle performance and energy density of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Another key issue about the above lithium-sulfur batteries is that the battery uses a lithium metal anode. It is well-known that there are some key problems in lithium metal anodes, including the fact that when the lithium-sulfur battery is in operation, the lithium metal anode chemically reacts with the organic electrolyte Thus dendrites the lithium to grow, this question will reduce the circulation efficiency of the battery drastically while still having the security problem. In addition to the above, the lithium-sulfur battery will also use a sulfur cathode. When the battery is working, lithium metal will react with lithium sulfide to form a layer of Li2S insoluble material on the surface of the lithium metal, which will eventually lead to loss of lithium metal eventually Will significantly reduce battery cycle performance.