Discipline: Nanoscience or Materials Science
Subcategory: Materials Science
Session: 1
Room: Forum
Clifford Denize - Norfolk State University
Co-Author(s): Co-Author(s): Sondai Riddick, Norfolk State University, Norfolk,VA; Samuel Danquah,Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA; Jacob Strimaitis, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA; Sangram K. Pradhan, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA; Makhes Behera, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA; and Messaoud Bahoura, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA
Lithium-ion batteries are omnipresent in our everyday lives in cell phones, laptops, and electronics. Manipulating new types of electrode materials to increase cell voltage, specific capacity and stability is an effective way to develop the next‐generation Li-ion rechargeable batteries. To implement this agenda, understanding the principles of the materials and recognizing the problems confronting the state‐of‐the‐art cathode materials are essential first steps. FeS2 is a promising cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries because of its high theoretical capacity (894 mA h g−1), low cost, and almost limitless earth abundance. However, the progress in developing viable Li/FeS2 batteries has been obstructed by the inferior cyclability of the FeS2 cathode. To overcome these issues, we sulfurized the FeS2 film in an inert environment to compensate for any sulfur deficiency during the thin film growth. Coin cells of sputtering deposited sulfurized FeS2 film were created. The structure and surface morphology of the cathodes were characterized using XRD and AFM. XPS measurements of the samples were performed to determine the stoichiometry of deposited films. Electrochemical characterizations included galvanostatic charge/discharge curves and cyclic voltammetry. The performance of the sulfurized FeS2 film was compared to the as-deposited film. The expected result of this comparison is that the compositions of sulfurized pyrite will be stoichiometrically similar to the target/source material, unlike the as-deposited cathodes. The sulfurized FeS2 film shows a better performance in terms of specific capacity, retention rate, and reproducibility of the coin cell.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Funder Acknowledgement(s): This work is supported by Sandia National Laboratories (Contract Agreement # 2175640), NSF-CREST Grant number HRD 1547771, and NSF-CREST Grant number HRD 1036494.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, mbahoura@nsu.edu
Role: I was involved in every part of this research.I have done the electrochemical characterizations and the creation of the coin cells. The E-beam evaporation was done by Dr. Makhes Behera. I am in the process of learning the other characterization methods of XRD and XPS and have begun to learn AFM.