Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Dear Colleagues,

Lithium-sulfur batteries store and discharge energy using a reversible conversion reaction that has no restrictions in maintaining the initial crystal chemistry of the materials during cells’ electrochemical cycling. Such an electrochemical conversion reaction enables the sulfur cathodes to have a high theoretical capacity of 1675 mA h g^-1. Moreover, elemental sulfur offers the advantages of low cost and high natural abundance, allowing the lithium-sulfur battery to be a strong candidate for next-generation energy storage devices featuring a high energy density at an affordable operation cost.

As a novel energy-storage technology, the true potential or the full challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries are not yet clear, and there is a lack of practical analysis and investigation. The battery performances of the lithium-sulfur system suffer low sulfur utilization, poor cyclability, and severe self-discharge. These challenges essentially result from the intrinsic material limitations. The insulating nature of sulfur and its end-discharge products, lithium sulfides, causes sluggish reaction kinetics. The discharge/charge reactions at the sulfur cathode involve complex conversions among solid sulfur, liquid polysulfides, and solid sulfides. The successive physicochemical changes of the active material and the electrolyte lead to the consumption of electrolyte and the irreversible diffusion of soluble polysulfides, which affect the efficiency and reversibility of the cathode redox reaction. A result of the intrinsic material problems is that the electrochemical efficiency and stability of lithium-sulfur batteries are significantly determined by the extrinsic cell-fabrication parameters, such as the amount of sulfur and electrolyte used in the batteries. Therefore, this Special Issue, “Lithium-Sulfur Batteries”, will focus on the materials, cell designs, and battery engineering in understanding the fundamental importance of these factors when designing practical lithium-sulfur batteries.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Electrode materials and electrolytes  for lithium-sulfur batteries;
• Electrode and electrode-substrate design;
• High-loading sulfur cathode;
• Low electrolyte/sulfur ratio;
• Performance lifetime and degradation studies.

Dr. Sheng-Heng Chung
Guest Editor

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• lithium-sulfur batteries
• sulfur loading
• sulfur content
• electrode/sulfur ratio
• electrode design
• cycle life
• self-discharge
• lithium-anode stability
• cell-failure mechanism
• degradation