| Abstract: | Beyond a doubt, Li ion battery ( LIB) has reshaped our livesfun-damentally since its advent in 1990s. After 30 years' optimiza-tion, the energy density of LIBs based on intercalation chemis-tries has approached the limit of ～ 300 Wh/kg. Any further improvement of energy density calls for new battery chemistries, among which Li-S batteries are regarded as one of the most pro-mising energy storage alternatives because of the high theoretical specific energy (2600 Wh/kg) and low cost of the sulfur since their renaissance in 20091] . After a decade' s development, the electrochemical performance of the Li-S batteries has achieved great progress in terms of cycling and rate performances in coin cell configuration. However, to commercialize the Li-S batteries, several critical issues should be carefully tackled2-5]: ( 1) the areal capacity loading of the sulfur should be substantially increased to the level of the commercial cathodes;( 2) the elec-trolyte volume should be reduced to the level of commercial LIBs;( 3 ) the shuttle reactions and the Li metal corrosion should be eliminated;( 4) the sluggish conversion-reaction kinetics should be further enhanced. These four issues are highly correlated and plague researchers for years. |
