Pie-like electrode design for high-energy density lithium–sulfur batteries

Owing to the overwhelming advantage in energy density, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery is a promising next-generation electrochemical energy storage system. Despite many efforts in pursuing long cycle life, relatively little emphasis has been placed on increasing the areal energy density. Herein, we h...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhang, Jin Tao, Chen, Yu Ming, Li, Ju, Lou, Xiong Wen (David), Li, Zhen, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100899
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7841-8058
Description
Summary:Owing to the overwhelming advantage in energy density, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery is a promising next-generation electrochemical energy storage system. Despite many efforts in pursuing long cycle life, relatively little emphasis has been placed on increasing the areal energy density. Herein, we have designed and developed a ‘pie’ structured electrode, which provides an excellent balance between gravimetric and areal energy densities. Combining lotus root-like multichannel carbon nanofibers ‘filling’ and amino-functionalized graphene ‘crust’, the free-standing paper electrode (S mass loading: 3.6 mg cm[superscript −2]) delivers high specific capacity of 1,314 mAh g[superscript −1] (4.7 mAh cm[superscript −2]) at 0.1 C (0.6 mA cm[superscript −2]) accompanied with good cycling stability. Moreover, the areal capacity can be further boosted to more than 8 mAh cm[superscript −2] by stacking three layers of paper electrodes with S mass loading of 10.8 mg cm[superscript −2].