On-site chemical pre-lithiation of S cathode at room temperature on a 3D nano-structured current collector

This work reports a new chemical pre-lithiation method to fabricate lithium sulfide (Li2S) cathode. This pre-lithiation process is taken place simply by dropping the organolithium reagent lithium naphthalenide (Li+Naph−) on the prepared sulfur cathode. It is the first time realizing the room temperature chemical pre-lithaition reaction attributed by the 3D nanostructured carbon nanotube (CNT) current collector. It is confirmed that the Li2S cathode fabricated at room temperature showing higher capacity and lower hysteresis than the Li2S cathode fabricated at high temperature pre-lithiation. The pre-lithiated Li2S cathode at room temperature shows stable cycling performance with a 600 mAh g−1 capacity after 100 cycles at 0.1 C-rate and high capacity of 500 mAh g−1 at 2 C-rate. This simple on-site pre-lithiation method at room temperature is demonstrated to be applicable for the in-situ pre-lithiation in a Li metal free battery.