C2.3 - Solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries with enhanced stability and structural integration for aviation

All‐electric aviation requires batteries combining high specific energy and power with high stability. A promising battery type to fulfil these requirements is the all‐solid‐state lithium sulfur battery (SSLSB). Whilst high capacity has been realized, it shows fast degradation during operation over multiple charge‐discharge cycles, which is known to be caused by several mechanisms such as the polysulfide shuttle effect, which however are not understood in detail. Therefore, this project focuses on the design and fabrication of SSLSBs with high stability during operation. New materials and processing methods for the composite cathode and separator that inhibit the polysulfide shuttle will be investigated, and protective coatings for the lithium anode will be evaluated. Battery cells will be fabricated at coin cell and at a later stage also at multilayer pouch cell level in order to characterise the performance and assess the requirements for a scalable production. Estimating their state‐of‐health in terms of capacity and power capability as well as determining their deterioration using operando evaluation is another key aspect. In order to assess the applicability, a battery system model will be established and parametrised by experimental data.

Research areas

• Implementation of polymer‐based electrolytes featuring hybrid multicomponent materials with polysulfide‐trapping fillers
• Design of structural cathodes based on sulfur‐carbon composites and their implementation in SSLSB
• Improving the cycle stability by developing strategies for material, electrode and battery optimization, considering aerospace application specifications
• Fabrication of solid‐state Li‐S cells at coin‐cell level with the potential to build multilayer pouch‐cells with high specific energy and high cycling stability