Thiokol with Excellent Restriction on the Shuttle Effect in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

Commercial application of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries is still greatly hampered by several issues, especially the shuttle effect of polysulfides. In this work, we proposed a simple but effective method to restrain the shuttle of the soluble polysulfides by adopting a novel binder of Thiokol in the sulfur cathode. Compared to the battery with conventional polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binder, the initial discharge capacity for the battery with the Thiokol binder were increased by 42%, that is from 578 to 819 mAh/g, while the capacity after 200 cycles were increased by 201%, which is from 166 to 501 mAh/g. Besides, according to the rate capability test cycling from 0.1 to 1 C, the battery with the Thiokol binder still released a capacity amounting to 90.9% of the initial capacity, when the current density returned back to 0.1 C. Based on the UV–vis and ex situ XRD results, it is reasonably proposed that the reactions with polysulfides of the Thiokol help to restrain the shuttle effect of polysulfides. It is therefore suggested that the novel Thiokol binder holds promise for application in high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries.

Keywords

• lithium–sulfur batteries
• binder
• Thiokol
• shuttle effect