Korean researchers at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology designed a lithium-sulfur battery with vitamin C treated dual-layered cathode, that achieved a 20% improvement in performance compared to traditional ones.
Lithium-sulfur batteries boast a superior energy density, which is why they are hoped to someday be used in electric vehicles, but disadvantages like poor cycle performance and low charge/discharge rates are still in the way. This study presented a vitamin C treated dual-layered cathode, which is composed of a sulfur active layer and a polysulfide absorption layer, that can increase sulfur utilization dramatically resulting in a lithium-sulfur battery with a high specific capacity of over 600 mAh/g after 100 cycles even under a high current rate of 1C.
The researchers state that this development can greatly improve low cycle performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, which is a big obstacle to commercialization of them, and possibly open the door to using Li-S batteries in next-generation electric car batteries.
