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Post lithium-sulfur battery era: challenges and opportunities towards practical application

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Abstract

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have been regarded as a promising next-generation energy storage system owing to the high theoretical energy density and natural abundance of sulfur. Abundant fundamental researches have pushed the flourishing development on electrochemical behaviors in recent 20 years. It is time to evolve into post-Li-S battery era with the pursuit towards practical application. During the landmark leap, numerous new challenges appear under harsh conditions, such as high sulfur loading, low cathode density, lean electrolyte and limited lithium reservoir. Herein, we summarize the considerable parameters of pouch Li-S cells and review the pioneering studies focused on the cathode structure, conversion kinetics, electrode interphase and battery safety. The interwoven relationship of these key points is concluded and discussed, which provides guidance to future researches aiming to safe and long-lifespan Li-S batteries with high energy density.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFB2400300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22179083), Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader (20XD1401900) and Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2019B090908001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemistry and Utilization of Carbon-Based Energy Resources, College of Chemistry, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Jiulin Wang

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Jiahang Chen, Yang Zhang, Jun Yang, Yanna Nuli & Jiulin Wang

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  1. Jiahang Chen
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Chen, J., Zhang, Y., Yang, J. et al. Post lithium-sulfur battery era: challenges and opportunities towards practical application. Sci. China Chem. 67, 106–121 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1421-7

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