High Performance Metal Sulfide Electrode for Lithium Battery

The global energy and ecological crisis is reaching its critical point and effective actions for its mitigation cannot be postponed any longer, and renewable energy and ecological transport industries are demonstrating tremendous growth. These applications demand the next generation batteries with excellent performance and reliability and lower cost. This turns our society to investigate the materials with diverse structure to design high performance electrodes for such systems. The studies on electrode materials, in general, showed the essential tendencies besides the electrode material itself: in its morphology, microstructure and chemical composition [1]. One of the promising electrode materials for the next-generation lithium-ion batteries are the metal sulfides, as they possess high electronic conductivity and higher theoretical capacity than commonly used LiCoO 2 . Nowadays, copper sulfide is attracting the attention of researchers due to its wide range of stoichiometric composition (Cu x S, x =1-2) and diverse application in energy devices [2]. Extensive studies demonstrate the possibility for numerous copper sulfide synthesis methods such as hydrothermal and solvothermal methods, melt diffusion, mixed solvents method, chemical deposition, sol-gel method, spray pyrolysis (SP), microwave-assisted growth, chemical vapor transport, template synthesis, and electrodeposition [3,4]. However, all these methods are costly and time-consuming. In this study, we present a facile and straightforward novel method of preparation of flower-like structured copper sulfide (Cu x S) (Fig. 1) with excellent electrochemical properties and cycling stability. Detailed studies on the electrochemical reaction mechanism for the new composition of the Cu x S phase will also be presented in this work. Figure 1. (a,b) SEM images of Cu x S electrode with different magnifications after preparation on Cu foam surface. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the project 091019CRP2114 “Three-Dimensional All Solid State Rechargeable Batteries” from Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. References: [1] G. Zubiab, R. Dufo-López, M. Carvalho, G. Pasaoglu, Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev., 89 (2018) 292-308. [2] C. Feng, L. Zhang, Z. Wang, X. Song, K. Sun, F. Wu, G. Liu, J. Power Sources, 269 (2014) 550-555. [3] G. Kalimuldina, I. Taniguchi, J. Mater. Chem. A, 5 (2017) 6937-6946. [4] C. Feng, L. Zhang, M. Yang,. X. Song, H. Zhao, Z. Jia, K. Sun, G. Liu, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 7 (2015), 15726−15734. Figure 1