Dr Michael Thielke has been awarded an EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to run from July 2025 - July 2028.

His project "Electrospinning of inverse vulcanised biobased sulfur copolymers for freestanding sustainable cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries" (ElectroBioLiS) will develop pioneering work on the use of spinnable freestanding sulfur-rich copolymers in cathodes of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries exhibit a high theoretical specific energy of 2600 Wh/kg, at least three times higher than the current lithium-ion battery technology, making it a great contender for high energy applications.

Yet the use of Li-S faces major hurdles, which stem from sulfur's lack of processability and insulating nature, as well polysulfide shuttle effect, all of which leads to the loss of capacity and degradation of the lithium anode through the formation of lithium sulfide.

Electrospun composite cathodes combining inverse vulcanised sulfur polymers can contribute to fully exploit the potential of lithium sulfur batteries by combining the high surface area from the electrospun 1D nanofibres with the inclusion of high sulfur content copolymers, enabling faster charging rates, using a fully scalable processing technique.

During the next three years, Michael will be developing his independent research on high performing cathode materials for Li-S batteries in Prof Ana Sobrido's group. Michael will collaborate with top international institutions MIT on developing technoeconomic analysis of his Li-S cathodes and Sorbonne on quartz microbalance studies. He will also engage with the UK LiSTAR Faraday Institution research programme.