Suppressing Lithium Dendrites in Li-S Batteries
| Interdisciplinary Areas: | Micro-, Nano-, and Quantum Engineering, Power, Energy, and the Environment |
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Project Description
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Owing to high theoretical capacity, low negative potential and prospective for next-generation Li-S batteries, Lithium (Li) metal has received huge attention as a promising anode, where stable Li metal electrode is crucial. However, Li dendritic growth and unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer result in poor electrochemical performances and safety problems (e.g. short-circuit). Distinctive design of nanoporous SiO2 nanosheet layer is coated on separator in order to uniformly control Li-ion flux and minimize the lithium dendrite formation. The propagation of Li dendrites against the separator was dramatically restrained and suppressed via porous SiO2 nanosheets, thus leading to significant enhancement of electrochemical performances of Li metal and in Li-S batteries. Li-S prototype cell coupled with designed SiO2 nanosheet membrane delivered stable cycle retention (over 400 cycles) with high Coulombic efficiency by selectively allowing Li ions to pass through functional separator and preventing the migration of polysulfides. |
Start Date
May 1, 2019
Postdoc Qualifications
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Promising candidates shall have a Ph.D. in mechanical/ chemical engineering, chemistry or materials science, with some research background in electrochemical science and engineering (computational modeling, characterization, materials processing). |
Co-advisors
Partha Mukherjee, ME, mukher28@purdue.edu
Vilas G. Pol, ChE, vpol@purdue.edu
References
1. P. J. Kim, K. Kim, V. G. Pol, Uniform Metal-Ion Flux through Interface-modified Membrane for Highly Stable Metal Batteries, Electrochimica Acta, 2018, 283, 517-527.
2. P. J. Kim, K. Kim, V. G. Pol, “Towards highly stable lithium sulfur batteries: Surface functionalization of carbon nanotube scaffold”, Carbon, 2018, 131, 175-183
3. P.J. Kim, H. D. Fontecha, K. Kim, V. G. Pol, “Towards High Performance Lithium Sulfur Batteries: Upcycling of LDPE Plastic into Sulfonated Carbon Scaffold via Microwave-promoted Sulfonation”, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10, 14827−14834.
4. J. Tang, C. E. Z. Lugo, G.A. Seisenbaeva, V. G. Kessler, V. G. Pol, “Beyond the Theoretical Capacity Limits of Iron Oxide Anodes: Nanosized γ-Fe2O3 for Lithium-ion Batteries”, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 18107–18115.
5. A. D. Dysart, J. C. Burgos, A. Mistry, C.-F. Chen, Z. Liu, C. N. Hong, P. B. Balbuena, P. P. Mukherjee, V. G. Pol, “Towards Next Generation Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Non-conventional Carbon Compartments/Sulfur Electrodes and Multi-scale Analysis”, J. Electrochem. Soc. 2016, 163 (5) A730-A741.