Graphene airgel promote absorption of sulfur catholyte or lithium will be realized

According to foreign media reports, in order to meet future demand for electrification, a need to develop new battery technology, one option is a lithium-sulfur battery, compared with the lithium ion battery, in theory, such a battery energy density to be five times higher. Recently, Swedish Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers University of Technology) researchers with the help of sponges graphene (graphene sponge), the use of catholyte, won the breakthrough in the development of such cells. Traditional cell consists of four parts. First, there are two support electrode active material covered, i.e., anode and a cathode; an electrolyte therebetween, usually liquid, that allows ions transfer back and forth; The fourth part is a separator , as a physical barrier, while preventing the contact of both electrodes allows ion transfer. First, researchers injected graphene thin layer of porous airgel in a standard battery box. Principal Investigator Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology and the present study Carmen Cavallo said: \”airgel is a type of long thin cylinder, it will be the same as the cut salami cut into thin slices, then slice squeezed into the battery. then let one sulfur-rich solution, i.e. catholyte added to the cell. the porous airgel as a support, would like a sponge to the solution. \” in order to play its catholyte electrolyte effect, the separator is also added to the catholyte portion, which maximizes the sulfur content of the cell. Currently, most commercial batteries are lithium-ion batteries, but the development of such batteries close to the limit, in order to meet the higher requirements, search for new chemical methods become more important. And a plurality of lithium-sulfur battery has advantages such as higher energy density. Currently, the best on the market the efficiency of a lithium ion battery is 300 Wh / kg, in theory, up to 350 / kg. When Theoretically, a lithium-sulfur battery energy density of about 1000 to 1500 W / kg. Professor of physics at Chalmers University of Technology who led the study and Aleksandar Matic, said: \”In addition, sulfur is very cheap, abundant, and more environmentally friendly addition, the lithium-ion batteries commonly contain environmentally harmful fluoride, and lithium-sulfur batteries. did not. \”So far, the problem that the lithium-sulfur battery is not stable, leading to life cycleLife is short. But researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in testing new prototype battery and found a new battery after 350 cycles, remains 85% capacity. The new design avoids the two major problems of degradation lithium sulfur, a sulfur dissolved in the electrolyte is lost, the other is a sulfur molecules migrate from the cathode to \”shuttle\” effect of the anode. In this design, the impact of such problems are greatly reduced. However, the researchers point out that the technology to take full advantage of the market potential is still a long way to go. Aleksandar Matic said: \”As of this cell production is different from the way most normal cells, it is also necessary to develop new production processes to commercialize the battery.\”