The present disclosure relates to a lithium-sulfur battery cathode. The lithium-sulfur battery cathode comprises a carbon nanotube sponge and a plurality of sulfur nanoparticles. Wherein the carbon nanotube sponge comprises a plurality of micropores. The plurality of sulfur nanoparticles are uniformly distributed in the plurality of micropores. The present disclosure also relates a method for making the lithium-sulfur battery cathode and a lithium-sulfur battery using the lithium-sulfur battery cathode.

The present disclosure provides a porous electrode for a flow-through rechargeable electrochemical cell including a high-porosity metal current collector, an active material surrounding the metal current collector, and a self-supporting synthetic membrane material surrounding the active material. The present disclosure further includes a flow-through rechargeable battery including multiple electrochemical cells, a closed loop, and a pump.

This disclosure relates to an SO.sub.2-based electrolyte for a rechargeable battery cell containing at least one conducting salt of the Formula (I) ##STR00001##
wherein M is a metal selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, metals of group 12 of the periodic table of the elements and aluminum; x is an integer from 1 to 3; the substituents R, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 are each independently selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1-C.sub.10 alkyl, C.sub.2-C.sub.1 alkenyl, C.sub.2-C.sub.1 alkynyl, C.sub.3-C.sub.10 cycloalkyl, C.sub.6-C.sub.14 aryl, and C.sub.5-C.sub.14 heteroaryl; and Z is aluminum or boron.

Electrodes, production methods and mono-cell batteries are provided, which comprise active material particles embedded in electrically conductive metallic porous structure, dry-etched anode structures and battery structures with thick anodes and cathodes that have spatially uniform resistance. The metallic porous structure provides electric conductivity, a large volume that supports good ionic conductivity, that in turn reduces directional elongation of the particles during operation, and may enable reduction or removal of binders, conductive additives and/or current collectors to yield electrodes with higher structural stability, lower resistance, possibly higher energy density and longer cycling lifetime. Dry etching treatments may be used to reduce oxidized surfaces of the active material particles, thereby simplifying production methods and enhancing porosity and ionic conductivity of the electrodes. Electrodes may be made thick and used to form mono-cell batteries which are simple to produce and yield high performance.

An electrochemical cell includes a. a cathode capable of reversibly accommodating lithium ions; b. an anode containing metallic lithium as active material; and c. a separator arranged between the cathode and the anode, wherein d. the anode includes a porous, electrically conductive matrix having an open-pored structure; and e. the metallic lithium of the anode is incorporated in pores of the matrix.

Aspects of the disclosure include an electrode coating having a spatially varied porosity and a method of forming the same by using a porous current collector. An exemplary method can include forming a porous current collector having a bulk material and a plurality of voids. The porous current collector can be coated, infused, or otherwise saturated with an electrode coating having an active electrode material. The porous current collector and the electrode coating can be compressed in a calendering process to define the electrode film. The distribution of the plurality of voids in the porous current collector provides for regions of different calendering pressures during the calendering process. The regions of different calendering pressures leads to regions of higher and lower porosity in the resultant electrode film. In other words, an electrode film having a spatially varied porosity.

In an embodiment an electrochemical cell includes a first electrode having a first surface area A1, a second electrode having a second surface area A2, an electrolyte arranged between the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the electrochemical cell is configured to provide a first electrochemical half-cell reaction at the first electrode and provide a second electrochemical half-cell reaction at the second electrode, and wherein a surface area ratio A1/A2 is larger than a stoichiometric ratio of the first half-cell reaction and the second half-cell reaction.

A negative electrode for a lithium-metal secondary battery, which has a wide specific surface area and a current density distribution that can be uniformly implemented, and a lithium-metal secondary battery including the same.

A graphene foam-protected selenium cathode layer for an alkali metal-selenium cell, comprising: (a) a sheet or a roll of solid graphene foam composed of multiple pores and pore walls containing graphene sheets, wherein the graphene sheets contain a pristine graphene material having less than 0.01% by weight of non-carbon elements or a non-pristine graphene material having 0.01% to 20% by weight of non-carbon elements, wherein said non-pristine graphene is selected from graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, graphene fluoride, graphene chloride, graphene bromide, graphene iodide, hydrogenated graphene, nitrogenated graphene, boron-doped graphene, nitrogen-doped graphene, chemically functionalized graphene, or a combination thereof, wherein the graphene sheets are interconnected or chemically merged together without an adhesive resin; and (b) selenium coating or particles residing in the pores or bonded to the pore walls of the solid graphene foam.

A battery of the present disclosure includes a first solid-state battery cell and a buffer layer. The first solid-state battery cell includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a solid electrolyte layer located between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. The positive electrode or the negative electrode has a current collector. The buffer layer is in contact with a face of the current collector opposite to the solid electrolyte layer. The buffer layer includes a thermally expandable material and a conductive resin.