German team reconfigures Li-S battery for improved performance; new porous conductive separator coating
05 February 2016
Researchers in Germany report significant improvement in specific capacity and cycling stability of “reconfigured” Li-S cells compared to a standard cell setup. At a constant charging rate of C/5, cells with their modified separator showed 2.5 times higher residual capacity (1016 mAh g−1) than cells with pristine separator (405 mAh g−1).
A paper on their work is published in the Journal of Power Sources.
Instead of generating a carbon/sulfur composite cathode by melt infiltration, the researchers coated a highly porous, conductive nitrogen-rich carbon material (TNC) onto a commercial polypropylene separator foil. The thin conductive coating of TNC on the separator enables the application of very simple sulfur/carbon black cathodes.
Because the melt infiltration of sulfur in a porous host material becomes unnecessary, electrode processing is significantly simplified.
Resources
Ulrich Stoeck, Juan Balach, Markus Klose, Daniel Wadewitz, Eike Ahrens, Jürgen Eckert, Lars Giebeler (2016) “Reconfiguration of lithium sulphur batteries: Enhancement of Li–S cell performance by employing a highly porous conductive separator coating”, Journal of Power Sources, Volume 309, Pages 76-81 doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.11.077
This may be what early extended range BEVs require?
Would also improved performance of most PHEVs.
Posted by: HarveyD | 05 February 2016 at 08:43 AM
If highly optimized, Hydraulic hybrid automobiles can have more than double the efficiency of standard automobiles at far less weight and extra cost of electric automobiles and with more reliability. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 06 February 2016 at 12:15 PM