Large quantities of waste sulfur are created during the refinement of fossil fuels. This sulfur has previously been considered of little value. But now, thanks to a newly designed process, the waste can be easily converted into a valuable lightweight plastic, one that could likely find great utility in the next generation of lithium-sulfur batteries. Such batteries show great potential for use in electric cars, thanks to their higher efficiency, lighter weight, and lower cost, when compared to lithium-ion batteries. And this new form of sulfur actually works better in lithium-sulfur batteries than elemental sulfur does.
Image Credit: Jared Griebel/ Pyun lab, University of Arizona
The researchers involved, have in fact already used the new plastic to successfully make lithium-sulfur batteries.
“We’ve developed a new, simple and useful chemical process to convert sulfur into a useful plastic,” lead researcher Jeffrey Pyun said.
The significant upside to this new plastic is that it can easily be produced on an industrial scale, while still remaining rather cheap. And it creates a use for the “accumulating yellow mountains of waste sulfur” that are now found at many oil refineries, a University of Arizona press release notes. There are already some uses for this sulfur, but not enough demand to keep up with the production of the material. This new plastic should change that.
“There’s so much of it we don’t know what to do with it,” said Pyun, labeling the left-over sulfur as the “the garbage of transportation.”
There’s about half a pound of sulfur waste produced for every 19 gallons of gasoline refined from fossil fuels, according to co-author Jared Griebel, a University of Arizona chemistry and biochemistry doctoral candidate.
And as stated above, the new plastic actually performs better in batteries than elemental sulfur does, possessing superior electrochemical properties leading to enhanced capacity retention.
According to the researchers, several companies have already shown interest in the new plastic, and in a battery design utilizing it created by the researchers.
A paper detailing the new process was published in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
