Full title: "Stabilization of gamma sulfur at room temperature to enable the use of carbonate electrolyte in Li-S batteries". The paper is from February, but it doesn't seem to have been posted before. TLDR is that with just a new anode made from carbon nanofibers and sulfur, batteries otherwise almost identical to existing Li-Ion batteries would have 2-5 times the energy density, last 3 times as long, and cost 1/3 or less, and be more environmentally benign (not needing cobalt). The breakthrough here is the discovery that carbon nanofibers stabilize gamma-phase sulfur which previously was thought to only exist briefly at high temperatures, and which doesn't form the polysulfides that have been the main problem with Li-S batteries.<p>Yeah, there have been lots of "breakthrough battery tech" announcements that didn't lead to commercial products, but this one really looks like it may be just the leap forward that will make renewable energy storage a non-problem.
If I’m reading it correctly there’s little significance to the 4000 cycle count; capacity had already stabilized at ~650mAh/g at around 3000 cycles and didn’t drop significantly thereafter.<p>Am I missing anything obvious that would imply the cycle stability is limited to 4000? From the trends it seems to me that the headline is understated and these might last much longer than 4000 cycles.
DOI link: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-022-00626-2" rel="nofollow">https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-022-00626-2</a><p>The micrographs of the nanofiber composite electrode are cool!
the difference between 600 cycles (best 18650) and 4000 cycles is night and day. There's already Lithium Phosphate that is warranted for 6000-8000 cycles. That's 19 years. With 600 cycles your battery will hit the landfield in 2 years. A Lithium Phosphate battery will last 19 years before it has to go to the landfield.
Nobody takes the environmental cost in consideration until you take away the subsidies and look at the real numbers.
I have to wonder what economic chance new battery types have given the massive investment in current tech.<p>It feels like we're betting on the wrong thing, and in the process blowing our wad and good will. Kind of like what happened with nukes.