Electro-spun sulfur wire for fabricating mattes of lithium sulfur batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12424617-B2
Application number	US-201615555143-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2016
Priority date	Mar 12, 2015
Publication date	Sep 23, 2025
Grant date	Sep 23, 2025

Abstract

The invention relates to lithium-based battery systems and, more particularly, to electro-spinable solution compositions, electro-spun sulfur-polymer fibers, e.g., wires and yarns, and their use in preparing high performance sulfur mattes, e.g., electrodes, for lithium-sulfur batteries with potential applications in small-scale mobile devices. The sulfur-polymer fibers have nanoscale dimensions and yarn-like morphology. The sulfur-polymer fibers can be prepared by co-dissolving sulfur and polymer in a solvent for forming the electro-spinable solution, and electrospinning the solution. The electrospun fibers can be used to form a composite that includes alternating layers of the electrospun fibers and polymer on a current collector.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sulfur-polymer composite, comprising:
a plurality of sulfur wires, comprising:
an exterior layer;
an interior layer;
a diameter from about 1-7 μm, derived from an electro-spinning precursor solution, the precursor solution comprising:
from 30 to 75% by weight based on total weight of the solution of a sulfur component, selected from the group consisting of sulfur powder, nano-sulfur powder, and mixtures thereof; and

a conducting polymer selected from the group consisting of polystyrene, polythiophene, polypyrrole, polyacrylamide, and polyvinylidene fluoride,
wherein the sulfur-polymer composite includes the plurality of sulfur wires interwoven with the conducting polymer or the conducting polymer forms an exterior layer and the sulfur wires form an interior layer; and
a lithium ion conducting coating applied to the sulfur-polymer composite.

2. The composite of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of electrospun sulfur wires has a continuous length from about 12 inches to about 24 inches.

3. The electrospun sulfur-polymer composite of claim 1 , wherein the sulfur component consists of the sulfur powder and the polymer component consists of polystyrene.

4. A sulfur-polymer mat, comprising:
a plurality of electrospun sulfur-polymer wires having a diameter from about 1-7 μm, derived from an electro-spinning precursor solution, the precursor solution comprising:
a mixture, comprising:
from 30 to 75% by weight based on total weight of the solution of sulfur selected from the group consisting of sulfur powder, nano-sulfur powder, and mixtures thereof; and

a solvent; and

a conducting polymer selected from the group consisting of polystyrene, polythiophene, polypyrrole, polyacrylamide, and polyvinylidene fluoride;
wherein, the plurality of electrospun sulfur-polymer wires are in a stacked form such that at least two layers of electrospun sulfur-polymer wires are in an alternating configuration with at least two layers of conducting polymer throughout the stacked form.

5. The electrospun sulfur-polymer mat of claim 4 , wherein the sulfur component consists of the sulfur powder and the polymer component consists of polystyrene.

Assignees

• Univ Pittsburgh Commonwealth Sys Higher Education

Inventors

• Kumta Prashant N
• Hanumantha Prashanth Jampani
• Gattu Bharat
• Shanthi Pavithra Murugavel

Classifications

• H01M2220/30

  Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop · CPC title

• H01M2004/021

  Physical characteristics, e.g. porosity, surface area · CPC title

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/602

  Polymers · CPC title

• H01M4/38

  of elements or alloys · CPC title