SBIR Phase I: Porous Carbon Substrate for Long Life Lithium-sulfur Batteries

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将解决与高能锂离子电池开发相关的问题。 如今，移动的设备需要更快的性能和更小的尺寸以实现更大的便携性。 然而，这些设备中更快的处理器对能量密度提出了要求，将当今的锂电池技术推向了极限。 移动的设备中使用的最先进的锂离子电极材料产生0.28-0.6 kWh/kg的最大能量密度。 我们的团队正在开发一种理论能量密度为2.3 kWh/kg的商用二次/可充电锂硫电池，这可能会极大地改变所有便携式设备的电能存储格局。这种Li-S电池的发展受到循环寿命差的限制。 该项目将通过开发一种最佳的多孔碳基质来解决这一问题，以在电池阴极中螯合硫。主体将限制多硫化物溶解，以便将我们目前的硫注入碳纳米结构（S@C）复合阴极材料的循环寿命从650次循环增加到1000次（或更多次）循环。此外，通过利用低成本的商业可用碳原料（碳气凝胶，石墨烯和高硫煤），该研究的结果将可能降低制造碳硫复合阴极的直接成本。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是显著的。 锂离子电池目前拥有110 - 130亿美元的市场，预计到2020年市场规模将达到440亿美元。锂离子电池占便携式电子产品中使用的所有二次（可充电）电池的近75%。采用硫作为阴极和金属锂作为阳极的二次锂硫电池提供了基于两种固体元素的任何电池的最高能量存储潜力。 这些设备提供的能量是目前部署的锂离子电池技术的两倍多，重量只有一半。如果这种潜力可以商业化，它有可能取代锂离子电池技术，因为硫的能量密度更高，成本更低，而且广泛可用。 这可能会对移动的设备、电动汽车市场和更广泛的储能市场产生重大影响，从而提高所有这些领域的效率和性能。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will address issues related to the development of high-energy lithium-ion batteries. Today, mobile devices require faster performance and smaller sizes for greater portability. However, the faster processors in these devices impose energy density requirements that push today's lithium battery technologies to their limits. State-of-the-art lithium-ion electrode materials used in mobile devices produce a maximum energy density of 0.28-0.6 kWh/kg. Our team is developing a commercial secondary/rechargeable Li-S battery with a theoretical energy density of 2.3 kWh/kg, which could dramatically alter the electrical energy storage landscape for all portable devices. Development of this Li-S battery has been limited by poor cycle life. This project will remedy this by developing an optimal porous carbon host for sequestering sulfur in the battery cathode. The host will limit polysulfide dissolution in order to increase cycle life of our current sulfur-infused carbon nanostructure (S@C) composite cathode materials from 650 cycles to 1000 (or more) cycles. In addition, by utilizing low-cost, commercially available carbon feedstocks (carbon aerogels, graphene, and high-sulfur coal), the results of this research will likely reduce the direct costs of manufacturing carbon-sulfur composite cathodes.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant. Li-ion batteries currently have a $11-13 billion market and the market size is expected to reach $44 billion by 2020. Li-ion batteries account for close to 75% of all secondary (rechargeable) batteries used in portable electronics. Secondary lithium-sulfur batteries employing sulfur as the cathode and metallic lithium as the anode offer the highest energy storage potential of any battery based on two solid elements. These devices offer more than twice the energy capacity of the currently deployed lithium-ion battery technology with half the weight. If this potential can be brought to commercialization, it has the potential to displace lithium-ion cell technology because of the higher energy density, low cost, and widespread availability of sulfur. This could have significant impacts on mobile devices, electric vehicles market, and the broader energy storage market, enabling greater efficiency and performance in all those sectors.