A stable lithiated silicon-chalcogen battery via synergetic chemical coupling between silicon and selenium

KwangSup Eom; Jung Tae Lee; Martin Oschatz; Feixiang Wu; Stefan Kaskel; Gleb Yushin; Thomas F Fuller

doi:10.1038/ncomms13888

A stable lithiated silicon-chalcogen battery via synergetic chemical coupling between silicon and selenium

Nat Commun. 2017 Jan 5:8:13888. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13888.

Authors

KwangSup Eom^{1

2}, Jung Tae Lee³, Martin Oschatz⁴, Feixiang Wu³, Stefan Kaskel⁴, Gleb Yushin³, Thomas F Fuller¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science Technology (GIST), 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005, South Korea.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
⁴ Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Dresden University of Technology, Bergstrasse 66, 01069 Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

Li-ion batteries dominate portable energy storage due to their exceptional power and energy characteristics. Yet, various consumer devices and electric vehicles demand higher specific energy and power with longer cycle life. Here we report a full-cell battery that contains a lithiated Si/graphene anode paired with a selenium disulfide (SeS₂) cathode with high capacity and long-term stability. Selenium, which dissolves from the SeS₂ cathode, was found to become a component of the anode solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), leading to a significant increase of the SEI conductivity and stability. Moreover, the replacement of lithium metal anode impedes unwanted side reactions between the dissolved intermediate products from the SeS₂ cathode and lithium metal and eliminates lithium dendrite formation. As a result, the capacity retention of the lithiated silicon/graphene-SeS₂ full cell is 81% after 1,500 cycles at 268 mA g_SeS2^-1. The achieved cathode capacity is 403 mAh g_SeS2^-1 (1,209 mAh cm_SeS2^-3).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't