Lithium-sulphur battery with activated carbon cloth-sulphur cathode and ionic liquid as electrolyte

In this study a binder-free activated carbon cloth-sulphur (ACC-S) composite cathode is presented. Such a cathode was obtained using the impregnating technique of microporous activated carbon cloth with elemental melted sulphur. The surface morphology of an activated carbon cloth-sulphur electrode was studied using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which was equipped with an EDX spectroscopy attachment. Electrochemical properties of the ACC-S composite cathode was tested in an ionic liquid electrolyte consisting of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulphonyl)imide (EtMeImNTf2) and bis(trifluoromethanesulphonyl)imide (LiNTf2). The ACC-sulphur cathode working together with lithium anode was tested with the use of cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The capacity and cyclic stability of the ACC-S composite cathode were much better than those for the sulphur cathode (a mixture of sulphur from graphene nanoplatelets and carbon black) tested in the same ionic liquid electrolyte. The ACC-sulphur cathode showed good cyclability and coulombic efficiency (99%) with the ionic liquid electrolyte. The reversible capacity of the ACC-S|electrolyte|Li cell was ca. 830 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles.