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Long‐Life, High‐Rate Lithium–Sulfur Cells with a Carbon‐Free VN Host as an Efficient Polysulfide Adsorbent and Lithium Dendrite Inhibitor
Author(s) -
He Jiarui,
Manthiram Arumugam
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201903241
Subject(s) - faraday efficiency , materials science , polysulfide , anode , cathode , nucleation , lithium (medication) , electrochemistry , chemical engineering , dendrite (mathematics) , electrode , stripping (fiber) , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , chemistry , electrolyte , composite material , organic chemistry , medicine , geometry , mathematics , engineering , endocrinology
Lithium–sulfur (Li‐S) batteries are a promising next‐generation energy‐storage system, but the polysulfide shuttle and dendritic Li growth seriously hinder their commercial viability. Most of the previous studies have focused on only one of these two issues at a time. To address both the issues simultaneously, presented here is a highly conductive, noncarbon, 3D vanadium nitride (VN) nanowire array as an efficient host for both sulfur cathodes and lithium‐metal anodes. With fast electron and ion transport and high porosity and surface area, VN traps the soluble polysulfides, promotes the redox kinetics of sulfur cathodes, facilitates uniform nucleation/growth of lithium metal, and inhibits lithium dendrite growth at an unprecedented high current density of 10 mA cm −2 over 200 h of repeated plating/stripping. As a result, VN‐Li||VN‐S full cells constructed with VN as both an anode and cathode host with a negative to positive electrode capacity ratio of only ≈2 deliver remarkable electrochemical performance with a high Coulombic efficiency of ≈99.6% over 850 cycles at a high 4 C rate and a high areal capacity of 4.6 mA h cm −2 . The strategy presented here offers a viable approach to realize high‐energy‐density, safe Li‐metal‐based batteries.