Reversible electrochemical oxidation of sulfur in ionic liquid for high-voltage Al-S batteries.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34588446.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-26056-7 and PMC identifier 8481422.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Sulfur is an important electrode material in metal-sulfur batteries. It is usually coupled with metal anodes and undergoes electrochemical reduction to form metal sulfides. Herein, we demonstrate, for the first time, the reversible sulfur oxidation process in AlCl<sub>3</sub>/carbamide ionic liquid, where sulfur is electrochemically oxidized by AlCl<sub>4</sub><sup>-</sup> to form AlSCl<sub>7</sub>. The sulfur oxidation is: 1) highly reversible with an efficiency of ~94%; and 2) workable within a wide range of high potentials. As a result, the Al-S battery based on sulfur oxidation can be cycled steadily around ~1.8 V, which is the highest operation voltage in Al-S batteries. The study of sulfur oxidation process benefits the understanding of sulfur chemistry and provides a valuable inspiration for the design of other high-voltage metal-sulfur batteries, not limited to Al-S configurations.