Understanding of Sulfurized Polyacrylonitrile for Superior Performance Lithium/Sulfur Battery

By Shengbo Zhang. 2014

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Sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) is one of the most important sulfurized carbon materials that can potentially be coupled with the carbonaceous anode to fabricate a safe and low cost “all carbon” lithium-ion battery. However, its chemical structure and electrochemical properties have been poorly understood. In this discussion, we analyze the previously published data in combination with our own results to propose a more reasonable chemical structure that consists of short –S x – chains covalently bonded onto cyclized, partially dehydrogenated, and ribbon-like polyacrylonitrile backbones. The proposed structure fits all previous structural characterizations and explains many unique electrochemical phenomena that were observed from the Li/SPAN cells but have not been understood clearly.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/160c76c328ee523ad28463901dfd63f6d5ecc9e5