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.