Discharging a Li-S battery with ultra-high sulphur content cathode using a redox mediator

Abstract

Lithium-sulphur batteries are under intense research due to the high specific capacity and low cost. However, several problems limit their commercialization. One of them is the insulating nature of sulphur, which necessitates a large amount of conductive agent and binder in the cathode, reducing the effective sulphur load as well as the energy density. Here we introduce a redox mediator, cobaltocene, which acts as an electron transfer agent between the conductive surface and the polysulphides in the electrolyte. We confirmed that cobaltocene could effectively convert polysulphides to Li2S using scanning electron microscope, X-ray absorption near-edge structure and in-situ X-ray diffraction studies. This redox mediator enabled excellent electrochemical performance in a cathode with ultra-high sulphur content (80 wt%). It delivered 400 mAh g(cathode)(-1) capacity after 50 cycles, which is equivalent to 800 mAh g(s)(-1) in a typical cathode with 50 wt% sulphur. Furthermore, the volumetric capacity was also dramatically improved.