一个研究团队开发了一种创新的单步激光打印技术，以加速锂硫电池的制造。

将通常耗时的活性材料合成和阴极制备整合到纳秒尺度激光引起的转换过程中，该技术将彻底改变未来可打印的电化学能源存储设备的工业生产。

A research team has developed an innovative single-step laser printing technique to accelerate the manufacturing of lithium-sulfur batteries. Integrating the commonly time-consuming active materials synthesis and cathode preparation in a nanosecond-scale laser-induced conversion process, this technique is set to revolutionize the future industrial production of printable electrochemical energy storage devices. The team was led by Prof. Mitch Li Guijun, Assistant Professor from the Division of Integrative Systems and Design at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

一个研究团队开发了一种创新的单步激光打印技术，以加速锂硫电池的制造。将通常耗时的活性材料合成和阴极制备整合到纳秒尺度激光引起的转换过程中，该技术将彻底改变未来可打印的电化学能源存储设备的工业生产。该团队由香港科学技术大学（HKUST）综合系统与设计部助理教授Mitch Li Guijun教授领导。

The findings of this study are published in the journal Nature Communications.

这项研究的发现发表在《自然通讯》杂志上。

Lithium-sulfur batteries are expected to supersede existing lithium-ion batteries due to sulfur cathodes' high theoretical energy density. To ensure the rapid conversion of sulfur species, these cathodes are typically composed of active materials, host materials (or catalysts), and conductive materials.

锂硫电池有望取代由于硫阴道高理论能量密度而导致的现有锂离子电池。为了确保硫种的快速转化，这些阴极通常由活性材料，宿主材料（或催化剂）和导电材料组成。

However, the fabrication of host materials and preparation of sulfur cathodes often involves complicated, multistep, and labor-intensive processes that require varying temperatures and conditions, raising concerns about efficiency and cost in industrial production.

但是，宿主材料的制造和硫磺阴极的制备通常涉及复杂，多步骤和劳动密集型的过程，这些过程需要不同的温度和条件，从而引起了人们对工业生产效率和成本的担忧。

To overcome these challenges, Prof. Li's team developed a novel single-step laser printing technique for the rapid manufacturing of integrated sulfur cathodes. During this high-throughput laser-pulse irradiation process, the precursor donor is activated, producing jetting particles that include in-situ synthesized halloysite-based hybrid nanotubes (host material), sulfur species (active material), and glucose-derived porous carbon (conductive component). The mixture is printed onto a carbon fabric acceptor, forming an integrated sulfur cathode. Notably, the laser-printed sulfur cathodes demonstrate outstanding performance in both coin and pouch lithium-sulfur cells.

为了克服这些挑战，李教授的团队开发了一种新型的单步激光打印技术，用于快速制造综合硫磺阴极。在这个高通量激光渗水辐照过程中，前体供体被激活，产生射流颗粒，包括基于原位的糖基霍洛伊座杂种杂种纳米尺（宿主材料），硫种类（活性材料）和葡萄糖衍生的多孔碳（电导分量）。将混合物印在碳织物受体上，形成综合的硫阴极。值得注意的是，激光打印的硫阴道在硬币和小袋锂硫细胞中均表现出出色的性能。

"Traditional manufacturing processes of a cathode/anode in ion battery usually contain the synthesis of active materials (sometimes combined with host material/ catalyst), the preparation of mixture slurry, and the assembly of cathode/anode," said Prof. Li.

Li说：“离子电池中阴极/阳极的传统制造过程通常包含活性材料的合成（有时与宿主材料/催化剂结合），混合物浆料的制备以及阴极/阳极的组装。”

"These steps are usually carried out separately under different temperatures and conditions because the materials behave differently. As a result, the whole process can take tens of hours or even several days."

“这些步骤通常是在不同的温度和条件下单独进行的，因为材料的行为不同。因此，整个过程可能需要数十个小时甚至几天。”

Prof. Li said, "Our newly developed laser-induced conversion technology offers a way to combine these processes into a single step at nanosecond speeds. The printing speed can achieve about 2 cm2/minute using only a single beam laser. A 75 × 45 mm2 sulfur cathode can be printed within 20 minutes and supply power for a small screen for several hours when assembled into a lithium-sulfur pouch cell."

李教授说：“我们新开发的激光诱导的转换技术提供了一种将这些过程以纳秒速度相结合到一个步骤中的方法。仅使用单个梁激光器只能使用一个75×45 mmm2硫磺的硫磺dode速度在20分钟内打印出一个小时的小时，即可将其打印到一个小时的时间内。

Dr. Yang Rongliang, the first author of this work and former postdoctoral fellow at HKUST, added, "These intriguing findings generated from our study on laser-material interaction. The laser-induced conversion process can be characterized as an ultra-concentrated thermal phenomenon. The irradiated materials undergo a complex transient heating and cooling process, with theoretical transient temperatures reaching up to thousands of degrees Kelvin.

这项工作的第一作者，也是HKUST的前博士后研究员杨·隆林格（Yang Rongliang）博士补充说：“这些有趣的发现是我们关于激光材料互动的研究产生的。激光诱导的转化过程可以特征在于，可以将超浓度的热量现象定为超高的热量。开尔文学位。

"The precursor materials decompose, and the decomposed particles recombine to form new materials. This ultra-concentrated thermal process not only enables the formation and combination of materials with different natures, but also drives the concomitant micro-explosions that facilitate the jetting and transferring of forming particles."

“前体材料分解，分解的颗粒重新组合以形成新材料。这种超浓缩的热过程不仅可以使材料与不同的本质的形成和组合，而且还可以驱动伴随的微型探索，从而促进形成颗粒的喷射和转移。”

More information: Rongliang Yang et al, Single-step laser-printed integrated sulfur cathode toward high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57755-0

更多信息：Rongliang Yang等人，单步激光打印的综合硫阴极，用于高性能锂 - 硫磺电池，自然通信（2025）。 doi：10.1038/s41467-025-57755-0