Zeta Energy, a Texas-based company that has developed a safe, low-cost, high performance and sustainable lithium-sulfur battery, has announced the development of a sulfurized carbon material compatible with dry-electrode processing. Dry-processed cathodes incorporated into pouch cells had equivalent performance to cells made with wet-processed cathodes.
Electrodes are commonly produced using wet processes in which electrode materials are combined with a solvent and deposited as a slurry, which is then treated and dried. If organic solvents are used, the process can be potentially hazardous to the environment and human health, and thus require expensive recovery systems with attendant area, power, and regulatory overhead. Zeta has long moved away from organic solvents, using instead aqueous processing with its water-compatible sulfurized carbon cathode material. Now, using Zeta’s material with dry processing not only avoids the use of solvents but also eliminates the need for drying, saving time, space, and power. As noted by Zeta’s Chief Commercial Officer Michael Liedtke, “The industry is moving towards a dry process because it saves so much energy and floorspace and doesn’t use solvents.”
Zeta has developed a class of patented sulfurized-carbon cathodes that suppress the formation of soluble polysulfides resulting in sulfur-based batteries that offer unprecedented stability and performance. Zeta Energy’s cathode can be combined with a patented 3D-structured, metallic-lithium anode technology, also developed by Zeta, resulting in battery that offers significantly higher energy density than other major anode chemistries and addresses dendrite issues common to lithium metal.