LiS growth on graphene: Impact on the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries.

Lithium-sulfur batteries show remarkable potential for energy storage applications due to their high-specific capacity and the low cost of active materials, especially sulfur. However, whereas there is a consensus about the use of lithium metal as the negative electrode, there is not a clear and widely accepted architectural design for the positive electrode of sulfur batteries. The difficulties arise when trying to find a balance between high-surface-area architectures and practical utilization of the sulfur content.

Elucidating electrolyte decomposition under electron-rich environments at the lithium-metal anode.

The lithium metal anode is one of the key components of the lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, which are considered one of the most promising candidates for the next generation of battery systems. However, one of the main challenges that have prevented Li-metal anodes from becoming feasible to be used in commercial batteries is the continuous decomposition of the electrolyte due to its high reactivity, which leads to the formation of solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers. The properties of the SEI can dramatically affect the performance of the batteries.

In situ optical measurement of the rapid Li intercalation and deintercalation dynamics in colloidal 2D layered TiS2 nanodiscs.

We report the in situ optical measurements of the rapid Li intercalation and deintercalation dynamics in 2-dimensional (2D) layered transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) with a nanoscale lateral dimension using thin films fabricated with size-controlled colloidal TiS2 nanodiscs. The films exhibiting high optical homogeneity, where the interband absorption changes near-linearly to the amount of intercalated Li, enabled facile optical probing of the intercalation dynamics overcoming the shortcomings of amperometry susceptible to complications from non-Faradaic processes. The time scale of Li intercalation and deintercalation was on the order of seconds in the nanodiscs of ∼100 nm lateral dimension, indicating sufficiently rapid dynamic control of the intercalation-induced material properties with a reduced lateral dimension.