It’s been known for years that using sulphur in a lithium-ion battery makes for a better lithium-ion battery. The energy capacity for a given weight and size trebles and there is the potential for longer service life, with more resistance to damage from constant charging and recharging.
Scientists at Drexel, though, think they’ve made a breakthrough, and it was almost an accidental one. The Drexel team, led by Vibha Kalra, George B Francis chair professor in the college’s department of chemical and biological engineering, were trying to confine the sulphur in an experimental battery within a complex carbon nanofibre structure. That process, apparently, did not work but something else did.
Drexel’s research would seem to indicate that, by using this new form of sulphur, a battery could be created that’s three-times more power-dense than current designs , and is more robust when charging, meaning that battery life could be extended. Switching to a sulphur cathode would mean that there would be much less need for battery materials such as cobalt, nickel and manganese. It’s these materials that cause such concern when it comes to environmental destruction in mining, and the use of child and even slave labour in mines.