Project R-12186

The peculiarities of kinetics and transport phenomena in lithium-sulfur batteries (Research)

Lithium-sulfur technology might finally realize a battery beyond lithium-ion that is more environmentally friendly and with a much higher energy density and lower price. Unfortunately, the maturation of this promising technology is impeded to a high extent by the undesirable release and mobility of the polysulfide species in the bulk of electrolyte. There is a consensus in the battery community that these species feature a fast mobility in the electrolyte which leads to a low sulfur utilization, fast rate of self-discharge, and short life-time of the battery. Surprisingly but, to date, there is a very limited quantitative insight about the modifications lent to the (electro)chemical kinetics and transport phenomena at the sulfur/electrolyte interface and the electrolyte bulk, respectively, in the presence of alien polysulfide species. The experimental/theoretical understanding of such effects is very crucial for an optimal design and optimization of the sulfur porous-electrodes and electrolyte formulations before commercialization of durable lithium-sulfur batteries in applications such as stationary storage. To fill this knowledge gap, the present project aims to combine a series of welldefined in-situ experiments with the physics-based modeling/simulation in order to obtain a quantitative insight about the aging phenomena and chemical/physical evolutions @ sulfur electrodes during charge/discharge cycling.

01 November 2021 - 31 October 2023