Method of fabricating sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites for cathode of lithium-sulfur secondary battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9306207-B2
Application number	US-201314086178-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2013
Priority date	Dec 28, 2012
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is method of fabricating sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites for a cathode of a lithium-sulfur secondary battery, whereby a cathode material having a relatively high content of sulfur is fabricated and a high energy density in a lithium-sulfur secondary battery is realized, including: a) performing thermal treatment on sulfur particles in a reactor at a high temperature to melt the sulfur particles; b) adding a mesoporous conductive material in macroscale to a sulfur solution in the reactor; c) pressurizing the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale in the reactor so that the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is completely immersed in the sulfur solution, and then maintaining the pressurized and molten state; d) cooling the sulfur particles and the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale so that sulfur within pores of the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is crystallized; and e) grinding sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive composites to fabricate sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of fabricating sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites for a cathode of a lithium-sulfur secondary battery comprising:
a) performing thermal treatment on sulfur particles in a reactor at a high temperature so as to melt the sulfur particles;
b) adding a mesoporous conductive material in macroscale to a sulfur solution in the reactor;
c) pressurizing the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale in the reactor at an upper portion of the reactor so that the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is completely immersed in the sulfur solution, and then maintaining the pressurized and molten state, wherein the mesporous conductive material in macroscale is pressurized in a range of about 1 to 100 bar of pressure and maintained in a pressurized state for about 5 to 48 hours;
d) cooling the sulfur solution and the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale so that sulfur within pores of the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is crystallized to form sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive composites; and
e) grinding the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive composites after cooling so as to fabricate sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites, wherein the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive composites are mixed with a zirconia ball by using a planetary miller and then ground at about 100 to 1000 rpm for about 1 to 48 hours,
wherein a temperature of the sulfur solution in the reactor in which the sulfur particles are melted in a) through c) is maintained at about 120° C. to about 180° C.; and
wherein the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale comprises a porous conductive material having a bulk diameter in a range of micrometer (μm) to millimeter (mm), and having about 10 to 90% porosity or air porosity.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a temperature of the sulfur solution in the reactor in which the sulfur particles are melted in (a) through (c) is maintained at about 155° C.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein, after the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is added to the sulfur solution in the reactor, the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is pressurized at the upper portion of the reactor by injecting gas when the reactor is in a sealed state into pores of the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale by using a gas injector.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mesoporous conductive material in macroscale is a porous carbon material or a porous metal material having micropores.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein after cooling, the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous composites are ground by using a ball mill method so that the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposities are atomized to a nanoscale or microscale.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive composites have pores that are about the same size as pores of the macroscale mesoporous conductive material.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macroscale mesoporous conductive material is a porous carbon material or a porous metal material having micropores.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macroscale mesoporous conductive material is a material formed of a single element from among materials that exist in a lithium group (IA-group), a beryllium group (IIA-group), a scandium group (IIIB-group), a titanium group (IVB-group), a vanadium group (VB-group), a chrominum group (VIB-group), a manganese group (VIIB-group), an iron group (VIIIB-group), a cobalt group (VIIIB-group), a nickel group (VIIIB-group), a copper group (IB-group), a zinc group (IIB-group), a boron group (IIIA-group), and a carbon group (IVA-group), or an alloy formed of one or more of the materials.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macroscale mesoporous conductive material is a material formed of a single element from among materials that exist in a lithium group (IA-group), a beryllium group (IIA-group), a scandium group (IIIB-group), a titanium group (IVB-group), a vanadium group (VB-group), a chrominum group (VIB-group), a manganese group (VIIB-group), an iron group (VIIIB-group), a cobalt group (VIIIB-group), a nickel group (VIIIB-group), a copper group (IB-group), a zinc group (IIB-group), a boron group (IIIA-group), and a carbon group (IVA-group), or a semiconductor formed of one or more of the materials.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macroscale mesoporous conductive material is a linear polymer or a copolymer of the linear polymer.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the linear polymer is polyacetylene, polypyrrole, or polyaniline.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the macroscale mesoporous conductive material has a spherical shape, a rod shape, a needle shape, a plate shape, or a tubular shape.

13. A method of fabricating a cathode material for a lithium-sulfur secondary battery, the method comprising:
mixing the sulfur-infiltrated mesoporous conductive nanocomposites fabricated in accordance with claim 1 with a binder and a solvent so as to fabricate a mixed slurry; and
coating the mixed slurry on a metal electrode and drying the mixed slurry.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Woo Hee Jin
• Ryu Hee Yeon

Classifications

• H01M4/626

  Metals · CPC title

• H01M4/0404

  by coating on electrode collectors · CPC title

• H01M4/1397

  of electrodes based on inorganic compounds other than oxides or hydroxides, e.g. sulfides, selenides, tellurides, halogenides or LiCoFy · CPC title

• Y02P70/54

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M4/624

  Electric conductive fillers · CPC title