James Wu¹; ¹Nasa Glenn Research Center

NASA future missions demand safe, high specific energy (>400 Wh/kg) batteries. Current SOA lithium-ion batteries is unable to meet NASA’s future energy goals. There are intense on-going development activities to increase battery energy density. Lithium/sulfur is a promising battery chemistry to achieve high energy density due to its exceptional high theoretical energy density (2567 Wh/kg). However, their development is hindered by rapid capacity fade, and safety and reliability on Li metal anode cycling. To solve these obstacles, selenium is introduced into sulfur cathode to improve the electronic and ionic conductivities, and ultimately improve sulfur cathode utilization. Using solid state or solid polymer nanocomposite electrolyte is a promising approach to make Li metal safely cycling and help to mitigate the “polysulfide shuttling” issue. In this presentation, the research activities on sulfur/selenium cathode development and integration with solid state electrolyte will be presented, and the progress and results will be also discussed.