Category: Beyond Li-ion

Due to the increasing use of portable electronics and the need to balance the output of fluctuating renewable sources, the demand for efficient energy storage systems is very high. Li-ion batteries currently provide the highest energy density among battery systems, however they are close to reaching their practical limits. Therefore new battery concepts have to be developed in order to keep up with market demand. Especially Lithium-Sulfur and Lithium-Oxygen batteries are considered promising new battery technologies. Both batteries have a much higher theoretical specific capacity than current Li-ion batteries and use abundant active materials. However, at this point in their development many issues have to be overcome, such as problems associated with the dissolution of active material into the electrolyte in Lithium-Sulfur batteries, and the poor energy efficiency due to the large voltage hysteresis of the Lithium-Oxygen battery. In the battery group in Delft both systems are studied, on a practical as well as a fundamental level.

The Significance of Elemental Sulfur Dissolution in Li-S Batteries

  In an effort to keep up with the increasing demands for energy storage, lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries receive a lot of research attention as they are considered one of the most promising technologies to replace the current lithium-ion batteries. Sulfur has the ability to reversibly store 2 electrons per atom and is an abundant, …

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