A thin multifunctional coating on a separator improves the cyclability and safety of lithium sulfur batteries

Guiyin Xu; Qing-bo Yan; Shitong Wang; Akihiro Kushima; Peng Bai; Kai Liu; Xiaogang Zhang; Zilong Tang; Ju Li

doi:10.1039/C7SC01961K

A thin multifunctional coating on a separator improves the cyclability and safety of lithium sulfur batteries†

Guiyin Xu,

^ab Qing-bo Yan,^bc Shitong Wang,^b Akihiro Kushima,

^bd Peng Bai,^ef Kai Liu,^b Xiaogang Zhang,

*^a Zilong Tang

^g and Ju Li

*^bh

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Material and Technology for Energy Conversion, College of Material Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P. R. China
E-mail: azhangxg@nuaa.edu.cn

^b Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
E-mail: liju@mit.edu

^c College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China

^d Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32826, USA

^e Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

^f Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130, USA

^g State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China

^h Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur batteries are one of the most promising next-generation batteries due to their high theoretical specific capacity, but are impeded by the low utilization of insulating sulfur, unstable morphology of the lithium metal anode, and transport of soluble polysulfides. Here, by coating a layer of nano titanium dioxide and carbon black onto a commercial polypropylene separator, we demonstrate a new composite separator that can confine the polysulfides on the cathode side, forming a catholyte chamber, and at the same time block the dendritic lithium on the anode side. Lithium–sulfur batteries using this separator show a high initial capacity of 1206 mA h g⁻¹ and a low capacity decay rate of 0.1% per cycle at 0.5C. Analyses reveal the electrocatalytic effect and the excellent dendrite-blocking capability of the ∼7 µm thick coating.

Chemical Science

A thin multifunctional coating on a separator improves the cyclability and safety of lithium sulfur batteries†

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A thin multifunctional coating on a separator improves the cyclability and safety of lithium sulfur batteries

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