Continuous, Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing and Assembly of Yeast-derived Carbon Nanotube-based Lithium-Sulphur Batteries

酵母源碳纳米管锂硫电池的连续卷对卷制造和组装

• 批准号: 1728042
• 负责人: Xiaodong Li
• 金额: $ 32万
• 依托单位: University of Virginia Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1728042&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Continuous; Roll; Manufacturing; Assembly; Yeast

Batteries for electrical energy storage have become ubiquitous in a world of portable and mobile electronics. However, current lithium-ion battery technology suffers from several key limitations, such as, high cost, limited energy storage density, poor durability, and severe environmental impact. These shortcomings limit the viability of many important emerging technologies, such as electric vehicles and off-peak storage for renewable energy generation systems. Batteries based on a lithium-sulphur (Li-S) chemistry can theoretically achieve energy densities six times greater than conventional lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries but have typical lifetimes of only 100 recharge cycles. This award studies new approaches to the manufacture of electrodes for lithium-sulphur batteries that have long lifespan and are affordable. Preliminary results have demonstrated that a battery cathode can be manufactured by high temperature carbonization of wheat dough creating a porous carbon network. The resulting carbon foam structure is covered with carbon nanotubes, which enables a dense loading of sulphur nanoparticles to increase energy capacity. The porous carbon/carbon nanotube scaffold structure prevents the degradation of the active sulphur material, extending the durability of the battery to over 4000 cycles. The battery components are assembled through a scalable, continuous, and high-throughput process from low-cost precursors, which also contributes to improved environmental sustainability. This research develops new paradigms for design and nanomanufacturing of energy storage devices. These research advances are disseminated to K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as the general public through targeted courses, seminars, and publications.The research objective of the project is to address key technological and engineering barriers to achieving high-throughput manufacturing of batteries with exceptionally high energy and power densities and ultra-long lifespan. The approach is to derive electrode materials from a readily available, low cost, environmentally-benign material, specifically, wheat dough. The project addresses research gaps such as severe capacity degradation, incomplete sulfur utilization, and the severe 'shuttle effect' of dissolvable intermediates during the electrochemical reaction process. Research activities feature a systems-level focus spanning (1) synthesis of the mesoporous activated carbon/carbon nanotube scaffolds, (2) roll-to-roll manufacturing of the developed cathode into Li-S batteries, and (3) structural and mechanical characterization of electrode materials to evaluate the role of structure on battery degradation. The primary contributions of this work are to improve the effective conductivity of the sulphur cathode by embedding sulphur nanoparticles within a highly-conductive activated carbon/carbon nanotube scaffold and to study how the structure impedes electrode degradation by inhibiting the 'shuttle effect' and limiting reaction volume changes. The fundamental mechanism of the one-step synthesis of carbon nanotubes on carbonized yeast from wheat dough is determined. A prototype automated roll-to-roll manufacturing process is devised to produce high-performance Li-S batteries.

电能存储电池在便携式和移动电子产品领域已变得无处不在。然而，当前的锂离子电池技术存在一些关键限制，例如成本高、能量存储密度有限、耐用性差和严重的环境影响。这些缺点限制了许多重要新兴技术的可行性，例如电动汽车和可再生能源发电系统的非高峰存储。基于锂硫 (Li-S) 化学物质的电池理论上可以实现比传统锂离子 (Li-ion) 电池高六倍的能量密度，但典型寿命仅为 100 次充电循环。该奖项研究了制造锂硫电池电极的新方法，这些电池寿命长且价格实惠。 初步结果表明，电池阴极可以通过小麦面团的高温碳化形成多孔碳网络来制造。由此产生的碳泡沫结构被碳纳米管覆盖，这使得硫纳米颗粒的密集负载能够增加能量容量。多孔碳/碳纳米管支架结构可防止活性硫材料的降解，将电池的耐用性延长至超过4000次循环。电池组件是通过可扩展、连续和高通量的工艺从低成本前体组装而成，这也有助于改善环境的可持续性。这项研究为储能设备的设计和纳米制造开发了新的范例。这些研究进展通过有针对性的课程、研讨会和出版物向 K-12、本科生和研究生以及公众传播。该项目的研究目标是解决实现高通量的关键技术和工程障碍制造具有极高能量和功率密度以及超长寿命的电池。该方法是从易于获得、低成本、环境友好的材料（特别是小麦面团）中提取电极材料。该项目解决了电化学反应过程中严重的容量退化、硫磺利用不完全以及可溶解中间体严重的“穿梭效应”等研究空白。研究活动的重点是系统级重点，包括（1）介孔活性炭/碳纳米管支架的合成，（2）将开发的阴极卷对卷制造成锂硫电池，以及（3）结构和机械表征电极材料来评估结构对电池退化的作用。这项工作的主要贡献是通过将硫纳米颗粒嵌入高导电活性炭/碳纳米管支架内来提高硫阴极的有效电导率，并研究该结构如何通过抑制“穿梭效应”和限制反应来阻止电极降解音量变化。确定了在小麦面团碳化酵母上一步合成碳纳米管的基本机制。设计了一种自动化卷对卷制造工艺原型来生产高性能锂硫电池。

项目成果

Lithiation-Aided Conversion of End-of-Life Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes to High-Quality Graphene and Graphene Oxide

报废锂离子电池阳极的锂化辅助转化为高质量石墨烯和氧化石墨烯

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b04410
• 发表时间: 2018-12
• 期刊: Nano Letters
• 影响因子: 10.8
• 作者: Zhang, Yunya;Song, Ningning;He, Jiajun;Chen, Ruoxi;Li, Xiaodong
• 通讯作者: Li, Xiaodong

Ferromagnetic Nanoparticle–Assisted Polysulfide Trapping for Enhanced Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201800563
• 发表时间: 2018-05-01
• 期刊: Advanced Functional Materials
• 影响因子: 19
• 作者: Zan Gao;Yosyp Schwab;Yunya Zhang;Ningning Song;Xiaodong Li
• 通讯作者: Xiaodong Li

B4C nanoskeleton enabled, flexible lithium-sulfur batteries

B4C纳米骨架柔性锂硫电池

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.01.018
• 发表时间: 2019-04-01
• 期刊: Nano Energy
• 影响因子: 17.6
• 作者: Ningning Song;Zan Gao;Yunya Zhang;Xiaodong Li
• 通讯作者: Xiaodong Li

Graphene and its derivatives in lithium–sulfur batteries

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mtener.2018.06.001
• 发表时间: 2018-09-01
• 期刊: Materials Today Energy
• 影响因子: 9.3
• 作者: Yunya Zhang;Zan Gao;Ningning Song;Jiajun He;Xiaodong Li
• 通讯作者: Xiaodong Li

Upcycling of paper waste for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mtener.2020.100591
• 发表时间: 2020-11-27
• 期刊: Materials Today Energy
• 影响因子: 9.3
• 作者: Yucheng Zhou;Yunya Zhang;Xiaodong Li
• 通讯作者: Xiaodong Li