Paper Details

Lithium-sulfur batteries have been considered as a promising next generation rechargeable energy storage system,owing to its high theoretical capacity and specific energy density. However, several critical problems arise the wide-scalecommercial implementation of Li-S battery, namely low electrical conductivity of sulfur, dissolution of polysulfides inelectrolyte, volume expansion of sulfur during discharge [1]. To overcome these difficulties, a variety of additives wereadded in to the positive electrode material. In this work, sieved Sepiolite has been chosen as an additive material toencounter the above challenges in lithium sulfur battery.Sepiolite powders were sieved through a 200 mesh sieve (particlesize 74 microns) [2] and subjected to acid and thermal treatmentprior to use.Sepiolite is a fibrous hydrated magnesiumsilicate which contains extended silicon-oxygen sheets, but the tetrahedral SiO4 groups forming these sheets are oriented togive fibrous character of the mineral. The acid pre-activation caused restrictions in possible crystal deformation duringthermal treatment. The XRD patterns and FTIR spectra of the pure Sepiolite, sieved, acid treated and thermally treatedsamples were investigated and reported.From the XRD analyses, it is concluded that the Sepiolite structure hasbeencollapsed and amorphous silica was formed. The stretching of Si-O in the Si-O-Si groups of tetrahedral sheet isobservedin FT-IR spectra. From the SEM analysis, micro fibrous bundles morphology has been observed.

C.Kalaiselvi, M.Sivakumar, R.Subadevi, “SEPIOLITE AS AN ADDITIVE MATERIAL-CATHODE PREPARATION FOR LITHIUM SULFUR BATTERY”, International Journal of Advance Engineering and Research Development (IJAERD), Vol. 4, Issue 17, pp. -, January 2017.