Lithium-Sulfur Cells Wrapped in Graphene

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Graphene is science fiction made real – a one-atom thick layer of hexagonal arrays of carbon which weigh next to nothing and are stronger than any other material on earth.  Wrap a layer of this stuff around “a novel multifunctional sulfur electrode that combines an energy storage unit and electron/ion transfer networks,” and you get “an extremely promising electrode structure design for rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries.” Lithium-sulfur batteries have the promise of reaching a theoretical specific energy density “approaching 2,600 Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh kg-1),” compared to currently available specific energy densities for lithium-ion cells of 130-220 Wh kg-1. Researchers led by Dr. Vasant Kumar at the University of Cambridge and Professor Renjie Chen at the Beijing Institute of Technology worked to overcome the shortcomings of lithium-sulfur batteries now under development – a “fading” of the sulfur through a series of reactions with the anode, electrolyte, and lithium cathode, a kind of “shuttling” between these battery components, and the small number …