Acetylene Black/Sulfur Composites Synthesized by a Solution Evaporation Concentration Crystallization Method and Their Electrochemical Properties for Li/S Batteries

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 6; no. 7; pp. 3466 - 3480
• Main Authors: Tan, Haibo, Wang, Shengping, Tao, Du, Yang, Zhigao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2013
• Subjects: Batteries; Carbon; Composite materials; Crystallization; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Electrons; Engineers; Lithium; lithium sulfur batteries; Methods; Microscopy; solution evaporation concentration crystallization method; Solvents; Sulfur; sulfur/carbon composites; China
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en6073466

A novel technique to prepare carbon/sulfur composites as cathode materials for Li/S batteries is proposed, which we call the ‘solution evaporation concentration crystallization’ method. Three composites with different S loadings were prepared, subject to two different solvent evaporation rates from acetylene black (AB)/sulfur in carbon disulfide solutions. X-ray diffraction, environmental scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurements all show that the porous AB structure is well-filled with S. Composites prepared at a lower solvent evaporation rate with 50 wt % S content, had good electrochemical properties, with 1609.67 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles. Composites with better dispersibility at a low solvent evaporation rate can effectively prevent polysulfide from dissolving in the electrolyte, and serve to stabilize the structure of the S cathode during the charge-discharge process.