Poly(ether imide) Porous Membrane Developed by a Scalable Method for High-Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c14047
• Publication Date: 2022-11-17T14:28:22Z
• Authors: Waseem Raza; Arshad Hussain; Andleeb Mehmood; Yonggui Deng; Muhammad Asim Mus...; Jie Zhao; Kai Zong; Geng Luo; Lashari Najeeb Ur...; Jun Shen; Dongqing Liu; Xingke Cai
• Keywords: Separator (oil production); Polysulfide; Polyolefin; Lithium–sulfur battery; Polypropylene

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are one of the emerging candidates for energy storage systems due to their high theoretical density and abundance/nontoxicity/low cost sulfur. Compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries, multiple new challenges have been brought into this advanced battery system, such as polysulfide shuttling in polyolefin separators undesired lithium dendrite formation Li metal anode. These issues severely affect cell performance impede practical applications. Herein, we develop a poly(ether imide) (PEI)-based membrane sponge-like pore morphology separator Li-S by simplified phase inversion method. This can not only alleviate but also exhibit excellent ion conductivity, better thermal stability, higher mechanical strength compared those polypropylene (PP) separator. A combined experimental study indicates that PEI its good wettability toward electrolyte facilitate uniform transportation suppress growth. Meanwhile, molecules strong interaction polysulfides avoid effectively. As result, PEI-based shows much from various aspects (capacity, rate capability, cycling stability) than PP-based battery, especially at charge/discharge current densities sulfur loadings. Since developed be easily scaled up, work may accelerate applications point separators.