(696b) Mitigation of the Polysulfide Shuttle Effect through Use of Crosslinked Ionomer Coatings

The development of new rechargeable battery systems employing novel chemistries is imperative to meet the increasing energy storage demands of emerging technologies. Metal-sulfur batteries are a promising set of chemistries for moving beyond lithium-ion, owing to the widespread abundance of sulfur and the high theoretical energy density of many metal-sulfur couples. However, it is well known that metal-sulfur systems suffer poor performance as a result of the polysulfide shuttle effect. Building on previous work demonstrating the need of functional interlayers to balance cation conduction with polysulfide rejection,¹ ionomeric coatings are investigated for their ability to mitigate the polysulfide shuttle effect in lithium- and magnesium-sulfur cells. Relative to a bulk polymer layer, a thin coating contributes significantly less to the total cation conduction resistance observed in the cell. Relationships between cell performance and the chemical composition, structure, and transport properties of the coatings are determined with a combination of ex-situ characterization techniques and full cell testing.

1. Hunter O. Ford, Laura C. Merrill, Peng He, Sunil P. Upadhyay, and Jennifer L. Schaefer, “Cross-Linked Ionomer Gel Separators for Polysulfide Shuttle Mitigation in Magnesium–Sulfur Batteries: Elucidation of Structure–Property Relationships”, Macromolecules, 2018.