Date of Award

December 2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Engineering

First Advisor

Deyang Qu

Committee Members

Benjamin C. Church, Roshan M. Dsouza

Keywords

In-Situ Optical Microscopy, Lithium Dendrites, Lithium-sulfur Battery, Nonaqueous Electrolyte, Polysulfide

Abstract

By utilizing a high-resolution optical microscope, the dendrite formation on a lithium electrode with different electrolytes suitable for Li-S battery was investigated. It is found that the anions of lithium, the solvents, and the deposition current density have significant effects on the dendrite formation and surface morphology of lithium electrodes in electrolytes without polysulfides. On the contrary, in electrolytes with 25 mM concentration of polysulfides, the dendrite formation and surface morphology tend to be similar regardless of the other conditions. The dendrite-suppression effect of polysulfides, inorganic additive (CsNO3), and electrode modifier (TEOS) are not significant in the electrolytes with polysulfides and a high deposition current density (10 mA*cm-2).

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