Researchers Develop World's Most Efficient Lithium-Sulfur Battery

As a lithium-ion battery with great potential, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery could store up to five times the energy per unit weight. Facing obstacles with a much shorter life, Science Advances recently reported that the research team of Monash University, led by Dr. Mahdokht Shaibani, has found a new stable and efficient lithium-sulfur battery structure that could outperform current market leaders by more than four times, and power Australia and other global markets well into the future.

Ironically, due to the large capacity of the sulfur electrode in lithium-sulfur batteries, it was often difficult to cope with the resulting strong pressure during large-scale applications, which caused it to easily break.

This stress-induced deformation and connection failure of critical components-the carbon matrix responsible for transferring electrons to the insulating sulfur and the polymer binder that binds the two materials together-will ultimately lead to battery performance Rapid decay.

With that in mind, Shaibani worked with an international research team to find ways to connect the two more firmly together. Interestingly, instead of using a bonding material to form a dense network, she decided to "give some breathing space to the sulfur particles."

The new lithium-sulfur battery structure still relies on traditional binders, but different treatment methods are adopted to form a super-strong bridge bond between the carbon matrix and the sulfur particles, which can remain as the battery expands during charging Make extra space. In other words, the research team created a similar network, but placed only a minimal amount of adhesive between adjacent particles, increasing the space to accommodate structural changes and the stresses they generate.

In preliminary experiments of more than 200 cycles, the new efficient lithium-sulfur battery structure has shown a glimmer of hope-the charge and discharge efficiency exceeds 99%. To its knowledge, such high-capacity electrodes are unprecedented.

Researchers point out that the new battery is expected to bring up to five days of battery life to smartphones or allow electric vehicles to travel more than 1,000 kilometers without charging. It plans to further expand the test to explore the prospect of being an EV power battery or solar energy storage battery.

Professor Mainak Majumder said this development was a breakthrough for the Australian industry and could transform the way phones, cars, computers, and solar grids are manufactured in the future.

Monash University researchers are on the brink of commercializing the world's most efficient lithium-sulfur battery. At the same time, the research team also applied for related patents. Compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries, the new lithium-sulfur battery structure not only improves performance, but it is also expected to significantly reduce costs and reduce environmental impact. Details of this research have been published in the recently published on Science Advances.

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