TY - JOUR
T1 - Cyclability of sulfur/dehydrogenated polyacrylonitrile composite cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries
AU - Doan, The Nam Long
AU - Ghaznavi, Mahmoudreza
AU - Konarov, Aishuak
AU - Zhang, Yongguang
AU - Chen, P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was financially supported by Positec, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program. The authors would like to thank Dr. J. Byerley for assistance in editing the manuscript.
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Sulfur/dehydrogenated polyacrylonitrile composite has been studied as cathode material for lithium-sulfur rechargeable batteries. Nonetheless, capacity fading has been a challenge for the commercialization of batteries. In this study, characterization techniques of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, elemental analysis, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to investigate the change of cathode properties with charge-discharge cycles. Elemental analysis reveals that sulfur accumulates on the surface of the composite at the end of charge, and the sulfur formation decreases with cycle number. Scanning electron microscopy observations indicate that cathode surface morphology changes significantly after several cycles. By modeling the electrochemical impedance spectra of the cell in different discharge states, we suggest that capacity fading arises mainly from the formation and accumulation of irreversible Li2S (and Li2S2) on the cathode surface.
AB - Sulfur/dehydrogenated polyacrylonitrile composite has been studied as cathode material for lithium-sulfur rechargeable batteries. Nonetheless, capacity fading has been a challenge for the commercialization of batteries. In this study, characterization techniques of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, elemental analysis, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to investigate the change of cathode properties with charge-discharge cycles. Elemental analysis reveals that sulfur accumulates on the surface of the composite at the end of charge, and the sulfur formation decreases with cycle number. Scanning electron microscopy observations indicate that cathode surface morphology changes significantly after several cycles. By modeling the electrochemical impedance spectra of the cell in different discharge states, we suggest that capacity fading arises mainly from the formation and accumulation of irreversible Li2S (and Li2S2) on the cathode surface.
KW - Cathode
KW - Cyclability
KW - Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
KW - Lithium sulfur battery
KW - Sulfur content
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U2 - 10.1007/s10008-013-2220-2
DO - 10.1007/s10008-013-2220-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84891889010
SN - 1432-8488
VL - 18
SP - 69
EP - 76
JO - Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry
JF - Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry
IS - 1
ER -