Research in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries is important for the future of energy storage and utilization. With increasing societal demand for power and shift towards renewable energy sources, better options for energy storage must become commercially accessible. These materials should be environmentally safe, cost-effective, light-weight, and able to meet consumer demand in both capacity and lifetime. Li-S batteries can meet these goals, as sulfur is abundant, a by-product of petroleum refinement processes, and yield fewer safety concerns than their lithium-ion counterparts. Our research aims to understand and improve battery performance through use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to house sulfur and sulfide guests for Li-S cathode materials. These materials are highly tunable and relatively cheap, composed of simple organic molecules and common transition metals, and provide an interesting route to physically and chemically trap sulfur-species within the structure. While MOFs have been used for Li-S batteries previously, our efforts dig much deeper into understanding these physical and chemical processes in one common MOF, CuBTC, by examining effects of particle size and extent of sulfur loading on the MOF chemistry and overall battery performance though a variety of techniques, modeling, and complex data analysis.

Understanding physical and chemical factors determining lithium-sulfur battery performance using metal-organic frameworks

254th National Meeting (2017)

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