Sulfur in hollow nanofibers overcomes challenges of lithium-ion battery design

Yi Cui and his students have used sulfur-coated hollow carbon nanofibers and an electrolyte additive to fabricate a superior rechargeable lithium battery cathode. According to Cui, putting silicon nanowire anodes and sulfur-coated carbon cathodes into one battery could be the next generation in battery design. Stanford researchers have used nanotechnology to invent a better lithium ion battery cathode. The design of today's rechargeable lithium ion batteries limits the use of new technologies like electric cars and grid-scale energy storage because they do not store enough energy relative to their volume and weight - or, as researchers would say, their energy density is too low. Solving that problem is largely a matter of finding new materials for the positively and negatively charged battery electrodes, the cathode and anode. The research group of battery inventor Yi Cui, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, uses nanotechnology to fabricate electrode materials that greatly improve the electrical storage capacity of lithium ion batteries. In previous research, they reinvented battery anodes by fabricating them with silicon nanowires.