Issue 3, 2021

Boosting Li–S battery performance using an in-cell electropolymerized conductive polymer

Abstract

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries represent a promising high-density energy storage technology. The use of conductive polymers to enhance the performance of Li–S batteries has received much attention. In this work, a convenient and low-cost in-cell electropolymerization method is developed for the preparation of a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), as a cathode binder inside a Li–S battery. The cell with this electropolymerized PEDOT (ePEDOT) shows notably improved specific capacity, cycling stability, and rate performance in comparison with the cell using the chemically synthesized commercial PEDOT:PSS (cPEDOT:PSS) as the binder. The performance enhancement is attributed to the formation of tightly integrated interfaces between ePEDOT and other components in the sulfur cathode. Moreover, this study revealed that the electrochemical dedoping of PEDOT is likely to occur during the Li–S battery cycling and thus the contribution of PEDOT (and some other conductive polymers) to the enhancement of the electrical conductivity of the sulfur cathode may not be as significant as expected.

Graphical abstract: Boosting Li–S battery performance using an in-cell electropolymerized conductive polymer

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Oct 2020
Accepted
19 Dec 2020
First published
21 Dec 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Mater. Adv., 2021,2, 974-984

Boosting Li–S battery performance using an in-cell electropolymerized conductive polymer

X. Gao, C. Guo, Z. Ma, G. Xi, Y. Meng and Y. Li, Mater. Adv., 2021, 2, 974 DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00797H

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