Scientists visualize real-time electrolyte behavior in lithium-sulfur battery cells

Using a non-destructive method, a team at HZB investigated practical lithium-sulfur pouch cells with lean electrolyte for the first time. With operando neutron tomography, they could visualize in real-time how the liquid electrolyte distributes and wets the electrodes across multilayers during charging and discharging. These findings, published in Advanced Energy Materials, offer valuable insights into the cell failure mechanisms and are helpful for designing compact Li-S batteries with a high energy density in formats relevant to industrial applications.