Researchers develop novel lithium-sulphur

A team of researchers led by an Indian origin scientist has designed a novel method to develop high-capacity, rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries for smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices, IANS reported.

Lithium-sulphur batteries have attracted much commercial interest due to their specific energy densities that are considerably greater than those of their established cousin - lithium ion batteries, which are used in the vast majority of applications.

The novel cathode for rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries comes as a "wrap sandwich" sheet of graphene around a multi-functional sulphur electrode.

Graphene, is pure carbon in the form of an exceedingly thin, nearly transparent sheet, only an atom thick.

Vasant Kumar from the University of Cambridge and professor Renjie Chen of the Beijing Institute of Technology devised a multi-functional sulphur cathode at the nano-level to address low efficiency and capacity degradation issues.

According to the authors, their carbon scaffold acted as a physical barrier to confine the active materials within its porous structure, which led to improved cycling stability and high efficiency.

They further discovered that further wrapping the sulphur-carbon energy storage unit within a thin sheet of flexible graphene speeded the transport of electrons and ions.