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A flame-retardant binder with high polysulfide affinity for safe and stable lithium-sulfur batteries

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Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have shown promises for the next-generation, high-energy electrochemical storage, yet are hindered by rapid performance decay due to the polysulfide shuttle in the cathode and safety concerns about potential thermal runaway. To address the above challenges, herein, we show a flame-retardant cathode binder that simultaneously improves the electrochemical stability and safety of batteries. The combination of soft and hard segments in the polymer framework of binders allows high flexibility and mechanical strength for adapting to the drastic volume change during the Li (de)intercalation of the S cathode. The binder contains a large number of polar groups, which show the high affinity to polysulfides so that they help to anchor active S species at the cathode. These polar groups also help to regulate and facilitate the Li-ion transport, promoting the kinetics of polysulfide conversion reaction. The binder contains abundant phosphine oxide groups, which, in the case of battery’s thermal runaway, decompose and release PO· radicals to quench the combustion reactions and stop the fire. Consequently, Li-S batteries using the new cathode binder show the improved electrochemical performance, including a low-capacity decay of 0.046% per cycle for 800 cycles at 1 C and favorable rate capabilities of up to 3 C. This work offers new insights on the practical realization of high-energy rechargeable batteries with stable storage electrochemistry and high safety.

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Acknowledgements This work is financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0705703), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2021CFB082), Scientific Research Foundation of Wuhan Institute of Technology (K2021042), and the Open Key Fund Project of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing (Wuhan University of Technology, 2022-KF-10), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22275142, U22B6011), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M703268) and the Junior Fellow Program of Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (2021BMS20062).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Advanced Materials, Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center of Optoelectronic and New Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, China

    Guowei Yu, Guofeng Ye, Cheng Wang, Chenyang Wang, Zhaoyun Wang, Pu Hu, Yu Li, Min Yan & Zhitian Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Xi-Xi Feng

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100190, China

    Xi-Xi Feng, Shuang-Jie Tan & Sen Xin

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shuang-Jie Tan & Sen Xin

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  1. Guowei Yu
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  2. Guofeng Ye
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  3. Cheng Wang
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  7. Yu Li
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  10. Min Yan
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Correspondence to Min Yan, Sen Xin or Zhitian Liu.

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Supporting information The supporting information is available online at chem.scichina.com and link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Yu, G., Ye, G., Wang, C. et al. A flame-retardant binder with high polysulfide affinity for safe and stable lithium-sulfur batteries. Sci. China Chem. 67, 1028–1036 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-023-1808-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-023-1808-2

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