Symposium ES06-Sulfur and Sulfide Chemistry in High Performance Electrochemical Energy Storage

Sulfur and sulfide chemistry play a critical role in the development of next-generation energy storage technologies featuring extremely both high energy and low cost. Rechargeable sulfur based battery technologies particularly lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery have gained enormous research interest from academic and industry in the past decades due to its high theoretical capacity and low cost (compared with Co- or Ni-based transition metal oxides. Despite advances in liquid Li-S battery, deployment of the technology is still hindered by the low practical energy and limited cycle life with unsolved fundamental barriers of insulating sulfur/sulfides, polysulfide dissolution/shuttling, electrolyte depletion, and undesirable Li corrosion and dendrite. Achieving a high energy in practical Li-S cell is feasible only through the simultaneous integration of a high-loading sulfur cathode, thin Li anode, and most importantly lean electrolyte. However, this often leads to both a low reversible capacity and poor cycle life. Understanding of fundamental mechanisms and identifying effective strategies to address those issues at realistic conditions still need more efforts. The other important application of sulfur/sulfide chemistry is the development of sulfide-based solid state electrolytes (SSEs) and all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). Compared to polymer- and oxide- SEs, sulfide SSEs are arguably more viable for bulk-type ASSBs. This stems from sulfides’ low material density, low elastic modulus, and high ionic conductivity, which allows intimate contact with active materials and practical processing. More promisingly, sulfide-SSEs are compatible with sulfur both chemically and electrochemically and thus are feasible for direct sulfur cathode application without using protective cathode coating. Despite high expectations for sulfide-SSEs, there are significant materials, interface, and processing challenges that need to be addressed before practical technology deployment, particularly the moisture sensitivity, Li/SSE interfacial stability, and scalable manufacturing and separator processing. In this symposium, we will invite world-leading experts/researchers to discuss state-of-the-art advances in utilizing low-cost sulfur and sulfide chemistry for energy storage. The topics broadly cover sulfur/metal sulfide cathodes, sulfide solid electrolytes, and liquid/solid-state Li batteries including new materials chemistry, synthesis and characterization, interfacial studies and design, advanced processing/manufacture, and device integration/demonstration. Both experimental and computational studies are encouraged.

Topics will include:

Solid-state alkali metal-sulfur batteries
Synthesis and processing of sulfide-based solid electrolytes
Li metal anodes and interface with solid electrolytes
High sulfur content cathodes with high sulfur utilization rate for liquid or solid Li-S batteries
Durable liquid electrolytes/additives for high energy Li-S batteries;
Theoretical simulations (DFT, MD) across materials, electrode and cell levels
Novel structural design of anode, interface and current collectors;
Advanced characterizations of materials, interfaces and cells;
Advanced manufacturing and processing for electrodes and electrolytes
Electro-chemo-mechanics of solid-state cells;

Invited Speakers:

Torsten Brezesinski (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
Gerbrand Ceder (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Jang Wook Choi (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea)
Kyung Yoon Chung (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Kyu Tae Lee (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea)
Xin Li (Harvard University, USA)
Ping Liu (University of California, San Deigo, USA)
Arumugam Manthiram (The University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Steve Martin (Iowa State University, USA)
Mattew McDwell (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Y. Shirley Meng (The University of Chicago, USA)
Linda F. Nazar (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Yue Qi (Brown University, USA)
Deyang Qu (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, USA)
Donghai Wang (The Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Xiayin Yao (Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
Yan Yao (University of Houston, USA)
Thoms Yersak (General Motors, USA)
Wolfgang Zeier (Universität Münster, Germany)
Hongli Zhu (Northeastern University, USA)