Nanomaterials and Nanoengineering for Sulfur-Based Batteries

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 November 2018) | Viewed by 7041

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden e.V., Helmholtzstrasse 20, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Interests: porous materials (carbons, metal-organic frameworks); material syntheses and engineering; diffraction techniques (incl. operando studies and equipment development); sulfur batteries; carbon hosts for sulfur; silicon and alloy anodes; supercapacitors; surface functionalization and chemistry; electrochemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the battery world, the quest for the next generation of high-power and high-performance battery systems has opened up, as the demand for renewable energy is continuously increasing. Advanced energy storage with long cycle life and low cost would ensure an economical and efficient use of the so-produced power. In particular, automotive manufacturers are actively focusing on innovation with regard to electric vehicles, thereby promoting the rapid development of battery systems with large power, high energy density and safety.

Sulfur battery systems have garnered increasing attention of the scientific community during the last 10–15 years. There has been significant progress in their development and the first commercial breakthroughs are foreseen within the next five years. Many novel concepts and strategies concerning electrodes, separators and electrolytes have paved the way to overcome a whole bunch of challenges in sulfur battery systems. However, we are still confronted with unknown and unexpected issues at this point, especially in comparison with the classical lithium ion system.

While lithium-sulfur battery presents itself as an almost established, but still to be further developed system, other alternatives, such as sodium- or magnesium-sulfur batteries need much more efforts to reach the realm of commercial possibility. Although deep insights have been obtained into the overall system chemistry, the electrode/separator/electrolyte design still have lots of issues which need sustained research. Moreover, the effects of the nanoscale in these systems is rather unclear. A more detailed insight in this regards will directly lead to an extraordinary tuning ability, which shall provide significant support for the high-power and high-performance tasks typically expected from all sulfur systems.

The scope of our Special Issue focuses on all areas where material engineering on the nanoscale can contribute to an advanced sulfur battery system. Examples include, doping or co-doping of sulfur-hosting carbons and their effects on electronic properties for higher electronic conductivity or even ionic conductivity, sulfur retention solutions by tuning the carbon host or adding another electrolyte component to create a polymer-like layer around the active material particles in order to stop/minimize sulfur shuttling, or establishing a metal anode-sulfur battery. Furthermore, structure-performance correlation analyses, as well as operando studies can valuably complete the focus. In addition to the themes addressed here, this Special Issue also wishes to include all other related contributions allowing an optimistic step forward for sulfur battery systems and finding innovative solutions in nanoscale material chemistry and engineering.

We look forward to your valuable and high quality contributions to this Special Issue, with the opportunity to open up another great chapter of sulfur battery chemistry and materials engineering surging toward the breakthrough of sulfur batteries for our clean and sustainable tomorrow.

Dr. Lars Giebeler
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Sulfur-based battery systems
  • Lithium-sulfur
  • Sodium-sulfur (room temperature)
  • Magnesium-sulfur
  • Full-cell concepts with suitable negative electrodes, including metal electrodes.
  • Effects originating on nanoscale materials chemistry or design
  • Positive electrode, negative electrode, separator, electrolyte, current collectors
  • Active materials allowing self-assembly of protective layers
  • New concepts of synthesis of nanoengineered battery components to enhance performance and lifetime
  • Integrating nanoparticles and nanostructured materials to enhance performance and lifetime
  • Improved conductivities
  • Operando studies for highly detailed insights
  • Mechanism control by nanoengineered materials
  • Alternative concepts for acting on the nanoscale to overcome drawbacks of sulfur battery systems
  • Integrating nanoparticles and nanostructured materials to enhance performance and lifetime
  • Improved conductivities
  • Operando studies for highly detailed insights
  • Mechanism control by nanoengineered materials
  • Alternative concepts for acting on the nanoscale to overcome drawbacks of sulfur battery systems

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

10 pages, 2052 KiB  
Article
A Polysulfide-Infiltrated Carbon Cloth Cathode for High-Performance Flexible Lithium–Sulfur Batteries
by Ji-Yoon Song, Hyeon-Haeng Lee, Won Gi Hong, Yun Suk Huh, Yun Sung Lee, Hae Jin Kim and Young-Si Jun
Nanomaterials 2018, 8(2), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8020090 - 7 Feb 2018
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6280
Abstract
For practical application of lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs), it is crucial to develop sulfur cathodes with high areal capacity and cycle stability in a simple and inexpensive manner. In this study, a carbon cloth infiltrated with a sulfur-containing electrolyte solution (CC-S) was utilized as [...] Read more.
For practical application of lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs), it is crucial to develop sulfur cathodes with high areal capacity and cycle stability in a simple and inexpensive manner. In this study, a carbon cloth infiltrated with a sulfur-containing electrolyte solution (CC-S) was utilized as an additive-free, flexible, high-sulfur-loading cathode. A freestanding carbon cloth performed double duty as a current collector and a sulfur-supporting/trapping material. The active material in the form of Li2S6 dissolved in a 1 M LiTFSI-DOL/DME solution was simply infiltrated into the carbon cloth (CC) during cell fabrication, and its optimal loading amount was found to be in a range between 2 and 10 mg/cm2 via electrochemical characterization. It was found that the interwoven carbon microfibers retained structural integrity against volume expansion/contraction and that the embedded uniform micropores enabled a high loading and an efficient trapping of sulfur species during cycling. The LSB coin cell employing the CC-S electrode with an areal sulfur loading of 6 mg/cm2 exhibited a high areal capacity of 4.3 and 3.2 mAh/cm2 at C/10 for 145 cycles and C/3 for 200 cycles, respectively, with minor capacity loss (<0.03%/cycle). More importantly, such high performance could also be realized in flexible pouch cells with dimensions of 2 cm × 6 cm before and after 300 bending cycles. Simple and inexpensive preparation of sulfur cathodes using CC-S electrodes, therefore, has great potential for the manufacture of high-performance flexible LSBs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials and Nanoengineering for Sulfur-Based Batteries)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop