Soni, Roby;
Spadoni, Damiano;
Shearing, Paul R;
Brett, Dan JL;
Lekakou, Constantina;
Cai, Qiong;
Robinson, James B;
(2023)
Deploying Proteins as Electrolyte Additives in Li–S Batteries: The Multifunctional Role of Fibroin in Improving Cell Performance.
ACS Applied Energy Materials
10.1021/acsaem.2c04131.
(In press).
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Abstract
It is widely accepted that the commercial application of lithium–sulfur batteries is inhibited by their short cycle life, which is primarily caused by a combination of Li dendrite formation and active material loss due to polysulfide shuttling. Unfortunately, while numerous approaches to overcome these problems have been reported, most are unscalable and hence further hinder Li–S battery commercialization. Most approaches suggested also only tackle one of the primary mechanisms of cell degradation and failure. Here, we demonstrate that the use of a simple protein, fibroin, as an electrolyte additive can both prevent Li dendrite formation and minimize active material loss to enable high capacity and long cycle life (up to 500 cycles) in Li–S batteries, without inhibiting the rate performance of the cell. Through a combination of experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, it is demonstrated that the fibroin plays a dual role, both binding to polysulfides to hinder their transport from the cathode and passivating the Li anode to minimize dendrite nucleation and growth. Most importantly, as fibroin is inexpensive and can be simply introduced to the cell via the electrolyte, this work offers a route toward practical industrial applications of a viable Li–S battery system.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Deploying Proteins as Electrolyte Additives in Li–S Batteries: The Multifunctional Role of Fibroin in Improving Cell Performance |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acsaem.2c04131 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c04131 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | lithium−sulfur battery, dendrites, polysulfide shuttle, molecular dynamics simulations, biomolecule |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171388 |
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