A binder-free sulfur/reduced graphene oxide aerogel as high performance electrode materials for lithium sulfur batteries
Journal article, 2016

Societies' increasing need for energy storage makes it necessary to explore new concepts beyond the traditional lithium ion battery. A promising candidate is the lithium-sulfur technology with the potential to increase the energy density of the battery by a factor of 3-5. However, so far the many problems with the lithium-sulfur system have not been solved satisfactory. Here we report on a new approach utilizing a self-standing reduced graphene oxide based aerogel directly as electrodes, i.e. without further processing and without the addition of binder or conducting agents. We can thereby disrupt the common paradigm of "no battery without binder" and can pave the way to a lithium-sulfur battery with a high practical energy density. The aerogels are synthesized via a one-pot method and consist of more than 2/3 sulfur, contained inside a porous few-layered reduced graphene oxide matrix. By combining the graphene-based aerogel cathode with an electrolyte and a lithium metal anode, we demonstrate a lithium-sulfur cell with high areal capacity (more than 3 mAh/cm(2) after 75 cycles), excellent capacity retention over 200 cycles and good sulfur utilization. Based on this performance we estimate that the energy density of this concept-cell can significantly exceed the Department of Energy (DEO) 2020-target set for transport applications.

composite

activated carbon

porous carbon

nitrogen

storage

carbon aerogels

porosity

Science & Technology - Other Topics

cathode

nanoparticles

stability

Author

Florian Nitze

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Marco Agostini

Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Filippa Lundin

Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Anders Palmqvist

Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Competence Centre for Catalysis (KCK)

Aleksandar Matic

Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Scientific Reports

2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 39615

Subject Categories

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1038/srep39615

More information

Created

10/8/2017