A battery with sulphur cathode and lithiated graphite anode based on Lithium shuttle reaction

Abstract

Current commercial Li-ion batteries cannot meet the requirement of electric vehicles for long-distance transportation due to the limitation capacity of cathodes materials. Sulphur is a promising candidate as its theoretical specific capacity is as high as 1675 mAh g⁻¹. In this work, a design of new Li-ion battery is reported. Electrochemical method is applied to prelithiate graphite, and the anode is coupled with sulphur cathodes to assemble the corresponding cell. The cell shows a high initial charge capacity of 1113 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.2C and obtains a large specific energy of 485 Wh kg⁻¹. Also, prelithiated sulphur (Li₂S) is able to assemble Li₂S/graphite cell. The cell reaches 1226 mAh g⁻¹ in the first charge process and the specific energy is as large as 390 Wh kg⁻¹. Both cells show large specific energy and have considerable potential for practical application.

Keywords:

• Sulphur
• Li₂S
• Prelithiated graphite
• Li-ion batteries
• Li-S batteries