Kathleen Leighton
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Richard Laine
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Materials Science and Engineering / Engineering
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors: Richard Laine, Philyong Kim, Kathleen Leighton
Abstract
The next generation of lithium batteries using sulfur will be readily available at low-cost materials. In addition, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) has a high theoretical capacity (1675 mAh/g) and energy density (2600 Wh/kg). Compared to current lithium-ion batteries, which have 600 Wh/kg of energy density which are insufficient for modern electric vehicles and storage systems, Li-S has four times the energy density and is lighter. Unlike typical S8 and carbon composite batteries, sulfur polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) has been explored, and proves it has a more long lasting effect when used as cathodes in lithium batteries. This is due to the solubility of short LiPSs is poor in typical carbonate electrolytes. Additionally, during cycling, Li-SPAN batteries have volume issues based on density differences between S and Li2S. Sulfur has a density of 2.07 g/cm3, and Li2S has a density of 1.66 g/cm3. Therefore, biowaste and cost-effective silica-depleted rice hull ash (SDRHA) is shown in this work. SDRHA is a porous material because it has nano-pores. SDRHA can disperse SPAN and show a high specific surface area carbon-silica nanocomposite that absorbs the volume change during cycling. For example, SPAN with SDRHA electrode can have a 1200 mAh/g discharge capacity while the SPAN electrode can only have about 780 mAh/g of discharge capacity at 1C.
