TY - JOUR
T1 - Novel gel polymer electrolyte for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries
AU - Liu, Ming
AU - Zhou, Dong
AU - He, Yan Bing
AU - Fu, Yongzhu
AU - Qin, Xianying
AU - Miao, Cui
AU - Du, Hongda
AU - Li, Baohua
AU - Yang, Quan Hong
AU - Lin, Zhiqun
AU - Zhao, T. S.
AU - Kang, Feiyu
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB932400 ), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51232005 ), the Key Project for Basic Research for three main areas of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20120831165730900 and JCYJ20140417115840246 ), Guangdong Province Innovation R&D Team Plan for Energy and Environmental Materials (No. 2009010025 ). M. Liu and D. Zhou contributed equally to this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/4/1
Y1 - 2016/4/1
N2 - The ability to suppress the dissolution of lithium polysulfides in liquid electrolyte (LE) is emerging and scientifically challenging, representing an important endeavor toward successful commercialization of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. In this context, a common and effective strategy to address this challenge is to replace the LE with a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE). However, the limited ionic conductivity of state-of-the-art GPEs and poor electrode/GPE interfaces greatly restrict their implementation. Herein, we report, for the first time, a facile in-situ synthesis of pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (PETEA)-based GPE with an extremely high ionic conductivity (1.13×10-2 S cm-1). Quite intriguingly, even interfaced with a bare sulfur cathode, this GPE rendered the resulting polymer Li-S battery with a low electrode/GPE interfacial resistance, high rate capacity (601.2 mA h g-1 at 1 C) and improved capacity retention (81.9% after 400 cycles at 0.5 C). These remarkable performances can be ascribed to the immobilization of soluble polysulfides imparted by PETEA-based GPE and the construction of a robust integrated GPE/electrode interface. Notably, due to the tight adhesion between the PETEA-based GPE and electrodes, a high-performance flexible polymer Li-S battery was successfully crafted. This work therefore opens up a convenient, low-cost and effective way to substantially enhance the capability of Li-S batteries, a key step toward capitalizing on GPE for high-performance Li-S batteries.
AB - The ability to suppress the dissolution of lithium polysulfides in liquid electrolyte (LE) is emerging and scientifically challenging, representing an important endeavor toward successful commercialization of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. In this context, a common and effective strategy to address this challenge is to replace the LE with a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE). However, the limited ionic conductivity of state-of-the-art GPEs and poor electrode/GPE interfaces greatly restrict their implementation. Herein, we report, for the first time, a facile in-situ synthesis of pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (PETEA)-based GPE with an extremely high ionic conductivity (1.13×10-2 S cm-1). Quite intriguingly, even interfaced with a bare sulfur cathode, this GPE rendered the resulting polymer Li-S battery with a low electrode/GPE interfacial resistance, high rate capacity (601.2 mA h g-1 at 1 C) and improved capacity retention (81.9% after 400 cycles at 0.5 C). These remarkable performances can be ascribed to the immobilization of soluble polysulfides imparted by PETEA-based GPE and the construction of a robust integrated GPE/electrode interface. Notably, due to the tight adhesion between the PETEA-based GPE and electrodes, a high-performance flexible polymer Li-S battery was successfully crafted. This work therefore opens up a convenient, low-cost and effective way to substantially enhance the capability of Li-S batteries, a key step toward capitalizing on GPE for high-performance Li-S batteries.
KW - Gel polymer electrolyte
KW - In-situ synthesis
KW - Lithium-sulfur battery
KW - Pentaerythritol tetraacrylate
KW - Polysulfides immobilization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84959361264&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.02.008
DO - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.02.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84959361264
SN - 2211-2855
VL - 22
SP - 278
EP - 289
JO - Nano Energy
JF - Nano Energy
ER -