The structure and characteristic of carbon materials have a direct influence on the electrochemical performance of sulfur-carbon composite electrode materials for lithium-sulfur battery. In this paper, sulfur composite has been synthesized by heating a mixture of elemental sulfur and activated carbon, which is characterized as high specific surface area and microporous structure. The composite, contained 70% sulfur, as cathode in a lithium cell based on organic liquid electrolyte was tested at room temperature. It showed two reduction peaks at 2.05 V and 2.35 V, one oxidation peak at 2.4 V during cyclic voltammogram test. The initial discharge specific capacity was 1180.8 mAh g-1 and the utilization of electrochemically active sulfur was about 70.6% assuming a complete reaction to the product of Li2S. The specific capacity still kept as high as 720.4 mAh g^-1 after 60 cycles retaining 61% of the initial discharge capacity.
Feng WuSheng Xian WuRen Jie ChenShi ChenGuo Qing Wang
Composite polymer electrolytes based on mixing soft-segment waterborne polyurethane (WPU) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide (BMImTFSI) have been prepared and characterized. The addition of BMImTFSI results in an increase of the ionic conductivity. At high BMImTFSI concentration (BMImTFSI/WPU = 3 in weight ratio), the ionic conductivity reaches 4.27 × 10^-3 S/cm at 30 ℃. These composite polymer electrolytes exhibit good thermal and electrochemical stability, which are high enough to be applied in lithium batteries.