Wound cylindrical lithium-sulfur battery including electrically-conductive carbonaceous materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11600876-B2
Application number	US-202217726774-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 22, 2022
Priority date	Jul 23, 2021
Publication date	Mar 7, 2023
Grant date	Mar 7, 2023

Abstract

A lithium-sulfur battery includes a casing, a top lid circumferentially welded to the casing, a negative contact surface positioned opposite the top lid, a positive terminal disposed within the casing, welded to the top lid, and configured as a mandrel, a glass insulator circumferentially wound around the mandrel, and a jelly roll including at least an anode and a cathode wound around the mandrel. The jelly roll may also include a top surface not in contact with the top lid, a bottom surface partially in contact with the negative contact surface, and partially in contact with a plurality of non-hollow carbonaceous spherical particles disposed between the bottom surface of the jelly roll and the negative contact surface. At least some of the non-hollow carbonaceous spherical particles may provide one or more electrically-conductive pathways between the bottom surface and the negative contact surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A lithium-sulfur battery comprising:
a casing;
a top lid circumferentially welded to the casing;
a negative contact surface positioned opposite the top lid;
a positive terminal disposed within the casing and welded to the top lid, the positive terminal configured as a mandrel;
a glass insulator circumferentially wound around the mandrel; and
a jelly roll including at least an anode electroactive material and a cathode electroactive material wound around the mandrel, the jelly roll including:
a top surface not in contact with the top lid; and
a bottom surface partially in contact with the negative contact surface and partially in contact with a plurality of non-hollow carbonaceous particles, wherein the plurality of non-hollow carbonaceous spherical particles are disposed between the bottom surface of the jelly roll and the negative contact surface to provide one or more electrically-conductive pathways between the bottom surface and the negative contact surface.

2. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , wherein the casing is formed from one or more of aluminum or steel.

3. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , further comprising an electroactive material dispersed throughout the casing and within at least some of the plurality of non-hollow carbonaceous spherical particles.

4. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 3 , wherein the electroactive material is sulfur.

5. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , further comprising a glass insulator wound around the mandrel and disposed within the casing.

6. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , wherein the jelly roll further includes:
an anode current collector coupled to the anode electroactive material;
a cathode current collector coupled to the cathode electroactive material; and
a ceramic separator disposed between the anode electroactive material and the cathode electroactive material.

7. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , wherein the cathode current collector includes a carbonaceous scaffold formed from materials oriented at one or more defined angles relative to the cathode electroactive material.

8. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , wherein the ceramic separator includes a plurality of pores configured to allow lithium ions to propagate between the anode electroactive material and the cathode electroactive material via the ceramic separator.

9. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , wherein the anode current collector is a copper foil, and the anode electroactive material a solid lithium layer.

10. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , wherein the positive terminal is welded to the cathode current collector, and the negative contact surface is welded to the anode current collector.

11. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , wherein the negative contact surface is welded to the anode current collector.

12. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 6 , further comprising a separator pocket configured to house the ceramic separator.

13. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , further comprising an electrolyte configured to inhibit transport of lithium-containing polysulfide intermediate species from the cathode electroactive material to the anode electroactive material.

14. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , wherein the anode electroactive material is configured to output a plurality of lithium ions during operational discharge-charge cycling of the lithium-sulfur battery.

15. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , wherein one or both of the anode electroactive material and the cathode electroactive material has a length of 548 mm and a width of 100 mm.

16. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 1 , wherein the cathode electroactive material comprises a plurality of interconnected non-hollow carbonaceous particles.

17. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of interconnected non-hollow carbonaceous particles collectively define a plurality of multi-porous pathways.

18. The lithium-sulfur battery of claim 17 , wherein at least some of the plurality of multi-porous pathways are configured to retain elemental sulfur.

Assignees

• Lyten Inc

Inventors

• Gazda Jerzy

Classifications

• H01M2300/0085

  Immobilising or gelification of electrolyte · CPC title

• H01M2004/028

  Positive electrodes · CPC title

• H01M50/224

  Metals · CPC title

• H01M50/152

  for cells having curved cross-section, e.g. round or elliptic (H01M50/15, H01M50/153 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01M10/0569

  characterised by the solvents · CPC title