Novel organosulfur cathode materials for advanced lithium batteries

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Recent innovations in portable electronics, electric vehicles and power generation by wind and solar have expanded the need for effcient battery storage. Lithium-ion batteries have been the frontline contender of battery storage yet are not able to match current demands. Alternatively, lithium-sulfur batteries are a promising technology to match the consumer demands. Elemental sulfur cathodes incur a variety of problems during cycling including the dissolution of intermediate lithium polysul- fides, an undesirable volume change (~ 80%) when completely reduced and a high dependence on liquid electrolyte, which quickly degrades the cell's available energy density. Due to these problems, the high theoretical capacity and energy density of lithium sulfur cells are unattainable. In this work, A new class of phenyl polysul- fides, C6H5SxC6H5(4 < x