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A Facile, Low‐Cost Hot‐Pressing Process for Fabricating Lithium–Sulfur Cells with Stable Dynamic and Static Electrochemistry
Author(s) -
Chung ShengHeng,
Lai KeYu,
Manthiram Arumugam
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201805571
Subject(s) - sulfur , electrolyte , materials science , electrochemistry , cathode , polysulfide , lithium (medication) , chemical engineering , gravimetric analysis , electrode , metallurgy , chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , engineering , endocrinology
Lithium–sulfur batteries are among the most promising low‐cost, high‐energy‐density storage devices. However, the inability to host a sufficient amount of sulfur in the cathode while maintaining good electrochemical stability under a lean electrolyte condition has limited the progress. The main cause of these challenges is the sensitivity of the sulfur cathode to the cell‐design parameters (i.e., the amount of sulfur and electrolyte) and the experimental testing conditions (i.e., cycling rates and analysis duration). Here, a hot‐pressing method is presented that effectively encapsulates a high amount of sulfur in the cathode within only 5 s, resulting in high sulfur loading and content of, respectively, 10 mg cm −2 and 65 wt%. The hot‐pressed sulfur (HPS) cathodes exhibit superior dynamic and static electrochemical performance under a broad cycling‐rate (C/20–1C rates) and low electrolyte/sulfur ratio (6 µL mg −1 ) conditions. The dynamic cell stability is demonstrated by high gravimetric and areal capacities of, respectively, 415–730 mAh g −1 and 7–12 mAh cm −2 at C/20–1C rates with a high capacity retention of over 70% after 200 cycles. The static cell stability is demonstrated by excellent shelf life with low self‐discharge and stable cycle life on storing for over one year.