Li-S battery company OXIS Energy receives 2014 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation

Consultancy Frost &Sullivan has selected UK-based lithium-sulfur battery developer OXIS Energy to receive the 2014 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation. OXIS Energy has developed a lithium-sulfur battery technology that resolves some of the issues in the batteries currently used in military, automotive, and solar energy storage applications.... Read more →


Suppressing lithium (Li) dendrite growth is one of the most critical challenges for the development of Li-metal batteries—i.e., high-energy density batteries using a Li-metal anode such as Li-sulfur or Li-air. (Earlier post.) Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) report for the first time the growth of dendrite-free lithium films... Read more →


Li-S battery company OXIS Energy reports 300 Wh/kg and 25 Ah cell, predicting 33 Ah by mid-2015, 500 Wh/kg by end of 2018

UK-based Lithium-sulfur battery company OXIS Energy (earlier post) reported developing a Lithium-sulfur cell achieving in excess of 300 Wh/kg. In addition, OXIS has achieved an increase in cell capacity to 25 Ah—a twelve-fold improvement in 18 months. OXIS predicts it will achieve a cell capacity of 33Ah by mid-2015. The... Read more →


Discharge capacities and Coulombic efficiency vs cycles for the new composite at 0.6C. Capacity values were calculated based on the mass of sulfur. Credit: ACS, Zhou et al. Click to enlarge. A team from General Motors Global Research & Development Center in Michigan has developed a new double-layered core–shell structure... Read more →


A team at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China) has developed an ordered meso-microporous core–shell carbon (MMCS) as a sulfur container, which combines the advantages of both mesoporous and microporous carbon for use in high-capacity, long-life cathodes for Lithium-sulfur batteries. This strategy, they suggest in a paper in the... Read more →


Schematic illustration of the synthesis of SPGs. Credit: ACS, Li et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Rice University led by Dr. James Tour have developed a hierarchical nanocomposite material of graphene nanoribbons combined with polyaniline and sulfur (Sulfur-PANI-GNRs, SPG) using an inexpensive, simple method. The composite shows good rate... Read more →


Cornell researchers stabilize lithium metal anodes using halide salt in liquid electrolyte

A team at Cornell University led by Dr. Lynden Archer has used simple liquid electrolytes reinforced with halogenated salt blends to stabilize lithium metal anodes in a rechargeable battery. The cells exhibit stable long-term cycling at room temperature over hundreds of cycles of charge and discharge and thousands of operating... Read more →


NASA selects proposals for advanced energy storage systems for future space missions: silicon-anode Li-ion and Li-S

NASA has selected four proposals for advanced Li-ion and Li-sulfur energy storage technologies that may be used to power the agency’s future space missions. Development of these new energy storage devices will help enable NASA’s future robotic and human-exploration missions and aligns with conclusions presented in the National Research Council’s... Read more →


Rate performance of the composite cathode at different C rates ranging from 0.05C to 1C. Credit: ACS, Liang et al.Click to enlarge. A team at Stanford University led by Prof. Yi Cui recently reported in a paper in the journal ACS Nano the development of a three-dimensional (3D) electrode structure... Read more →


OXIS Energy and Multi Source Power form partnership for marine Li-sulfur batteries

UK-based OXIS Energy and Multi Source Power technologies (MSP) have formed a partnership to develop Li-sulfur batteries for marine applications. The partners will launch the new battery in the spring of 2015. One of MSP’s specialities is designing and manufacturing battery packs and hybrid power and propulsion systems for the... Read more →


Top. Long-term cycling performance test of the S@NG electrode at 2 C discharge/charge rate. Inset is its corresponding Coulombic efficiency at 2 C. Bottom. The corresponding voltage-capacity profiles at different cycles. Credit: ACS, Qiu et al.Click to enlarge. Researchers in China, with colleagues from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have synthesized... Read more →


Dr. Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University—including Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and the former Secretary of Energy, now a professor in the Physics department at Stanford—report progress toward a stable lithium metal anode for use in high-energy-density batteries such as Li-sulfur or Li-air systems. Lithium metal is a... Read more →


Left. Rate performance of the S-SACNT cathode. Inset is a photograph of the binder-free nano S-SACNT composite. Right. Cartoon of the S-SACNT composite. Credit: ACS, Sun et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers from Tsinghua University have developed another approach to high-capacity cathode materials for Lithium-sulfur batteries: a binder-free nano sulfur/carbon... Read more →


Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have used a novel Ni-based metal organic framework (Ni-MOF) significantly to improve the performance of Li-sulfur batteries by immobilizing polysulfides within the cathode structure through physical and chemical interactions at molecular level. In a study reported in the ACS journal Nano Letters, the... Read more →


Hyundai Motor researchers report improved Li-sulfur battery performance with new sulfone-based electrolyte

Researchers from Hyundai Motor have found that the use of a new sulfone-based electrolyte greatly improved the capacity and reversible capacity retention of a Li-sulfur battery compared to the performance of ether-based electrolytes. In a paper presented at the SAE 2104 World Congress in Detroit, they reported that use of... Read more →


Cycling performance of Li−S battery from 10% by mass DIB copolymer batteries to 500 cycles with charge (filled circles) and discharge (open circles) capacities, as well as Coulombic efficiency (open triangles). The C-rate capability of the battery is shown in the figure inset. Credit: ACS, Simmonds et al. Click to... Read more →


Schematic of hybrid anode placed in a Li–S battery. The graphite/Li connected in parallel forms a shorted cell where the graphite is always lithiated at equilibrium and maintains a pseudo-equal potential with the Li metal. As such, it functions as an artificial SEI layer of Li metal that supplies Li+... Read more →


Schematic showing the chemical reduction reaction of one Li2S6 molecule by lithium to form six Li2S molecules, involving the diffusion/driving of lithium out of the graphene layers in the graphite. Credit: ACS, Fu et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, led by Professor Arumugam... Read more →


Long-term cycling test results of the Li/S cell with CTAB-modified S−GO composite cathodes. This result represents the longest cycle life (exceeding 1,500 cycles) with an extremely low decay rate (0.039% per cycle) demonstrated so far for a Li/S cell. Credit: ACS, Song et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the... Read more →


Oxis’ standard polymer Li-S pouch cell has surpassed 450 cycles. Click to enlarge. Oxis Energy, a UK-based developer of lithium-sulfur batteries, reported via Twitter that one of its standard polymer Li-S pouch cells surpassed 450 cycles this week. Oxis has developed a patented polymer lithium sulfur (Li-S) based battery technology... Read more →


Electrochemical performance of the modified hollow carbon nanofiber cathode. (a) Specific capacities of the PVP modified sulfur cathode at C/5, C/2 and 1C cycling rates. (b) Comparison of cycling performance at C/2 with and without the PVP modification. Credit: ACS, Zheng et al. Click to enlarge. Lithium sulfur batteries are... Read more →


Cycling performance of the different samples (the specific capacity was calculated by using the active material mass (sulfur) of the composites, given in mA h g-1). Demir-Cakan et al. Click to enlarge. A team from the University of Picardie Jules Verne (France) and Alistore ERI (European Research Institute) has demonstrated... Read more →


Electrochemical properties of sulfur-carbon composite. (a) GDC voltage profiles of S/(CNT@MPC) at 0.1 C. (b) Cycling performance of S/(CNT@MPC) and S/CB at 0.1 C (blue circles show the Coulombic efficiency of S/(CNT@MPC)). (c) GDC voltage profiles of S/(CNT@MPC) at different discharge/charge rates. (d) Rate capabilities of S/(CNT@MPC) and S/CB. Credit:... Read more →


(A) Comparison of different Li-ion cathode materials. Numbers in parentheses are the specific energy of a battery made of the cathode and a silicon anode with a specific capacity of 2000 mAh/g and potential of 0.45 V vs Li/Li+. (B) Schematic diagram showing the effect of applying a high cutoff... Read more →


Cycling stability of different C/S electrodes. Schuster et al. Click to enlarge. A research team led by Thomas Bein of LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) and Linda Nazar of the University of Waterloo (Canada) has developed new cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. The materials are spherical ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles featuring... Read more →


Cycling performance of Li/SeS2−C, Li/Se−C, Na/SeS2−C, and Na/Se−C systems. Credit: ACS, Abouimrane et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have developed selenium and selenium–sulfur (SexSy)-based cathode materials for a new class of room-temperature lithium and sodium batteries. A paper on their work is published in the Journal... Read more →


3 winners of DOE’s “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” Challenge: hydrogen-assisted lean-burn engines, graphene for Li-air and -sulfur batteries, and titanium process

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced three winning startup companies—based on a public vote and an expert review—out of the 14 participating in the US Department of Energy (DOE) “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” challenge. (Earlier post.) Initially, 36 start-up companies elected to participate in this first-of-its-kind effort. Of those... Read more →


Reversible capacity vs. current density (rate capability). Credit: ACS, Ji et al. Click to enlarge. A team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Tsinghua University (China) have synthesized graphene oxide-sulfur (GO-S) nanocomposite cathodes and applied them in lithium/sulfur cells to show a high reversible capacity of 950-1400 mAh g-1 and... Read more →


DOE EERE awards $5M to Penn State-led project to develop Lithium-sulfur battery technology

The UA Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DOE EERE) has awarded a $5-million, three-year grant to a project led by Penn State to develop a lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery with a volumetric energy capacity of 600 Wh/liter. Penn State and its project colleagues had earlier been... Read more →


Cycling stability (left) and Coulombic efficiencies (right) of SDCNT cathodes. Credit: ACS, Guo et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of Maryland have devised a new method of impregnating sulfur into disordered carbon nanotubes (DCNTs) as cathode material for Li-S batteries. In a paper in the ACS journal... Read more →


Schematic of design and fabrication process of hollow carbon nanofibers/sulfur composite structure. Credit: ACS, Zheng et al. Click to enlarge. Li-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries are of interest for applications such as transportation due a high theoretical specific energy density (~2,600 Wh/kg) that exceeds that of conventional (LiCoO2/graphite) lithium-ion batteries by about... Read more →


U-M and Shanghai Jiao Tong University fund new round of 6 energy and biomedical projects; Li-S batteries

The University of Michigan (U-M) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) have selected six research teams to share $1.05 million in funding for renewable energy and biomedical technology projects in the second year of a joint program that teams up investigators from both schools. The energy projects aim to improve... Read more →


Schematic of the synthesis steps for a graphene-sulfur composite material, with a proposed schematic structure of the composite. Credit: ACS, Wang et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Stanford University led by Drs. Yi Cui and Hongjie Dai report the synthesis of a graphene–wrapped sulfur composite material that shows high... Read more →


QinetiQ Zephyr Used Sion Li-S Batteries in Record Unmanned Flight

Sion Power’s proprietary lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries (earlier post) played a critical role in the QinetiQ Zephyr smashing the world record for the longest duration unmanned flight. A result of an intensive joint development effort between Sion Power and QinetiQ, the Zephyr flight exceeded 336 hours (14 days) of continuous... Read more →


Sion Power Corporation has received a three-year research grant worth up to $5 million from the United States Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) (earlier post) for the development of practical, economical and safe lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries for powering electric vehicles. Sion’s award was one of... Read more →


The new battery combines a Li2S/mesoporous carbon composite cathode and a silicon nanowire anode. Credit: ACS, Yang et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers led by Dr. Yi Cui at Stanford University have demonstrated a new proof-of-concept lithium metal-free battery with high specific energy consisting of a lithium sulfide (Li2S)/mesoporous carbon... Read more →


A lithium-sulfur cell. Source: Sion Power. Click to enlarge. Sion Power Corporation has received a three-year, $800,000 research grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to support Sion’s ongoing work to develop a new class of electrolytes used in lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries for electric vehicle (EV) applications. Sion... Read more →


The galvanostatic discharge and charge profiles of the first cycle of CMK-3 + sulfur; CMK-3/S-145; and CMK-3/S-155. Source: Ji et al. (2009) Click to enlarge. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have developed electrode materials for Lithium-Sulfur batteries using a conductive mesoporous carbon framework that have demonstrated reversible... Read more →


Configuration of a Li-S cell. Click to enlarge. Sion Power Corporation and BASF SE have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to accelerate the commercialization of Sion Power’s proprietary lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery technology for the electric vehicle (EV) market and other high-energy applications. The Sion Power / BASF collaboration targets... Read more →