Sulfurized polypropylene as low‐cost cathode material for high‐capacity lithium‐sulfur batteries

Abstract

Among ‘beyond lithium ion’ energy storage, lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries are one of the most promising technologies, as a result of the potential for high theoretical energy capacity at low cost. A key obstacle in exploiting the vast potential of Li-S batteries is the formation of soluble polysulfide species. Here, we report sulfurized polypropylene (S/PP‐500) synthesized in one‐step by reacting polypropylene (PP) with sulfur as a new polysulfide shuttle‐free cathode material for Li-S batteries. It exhibits a reversible capacity as high as 1000 mAh/gsulfur at 0.1 C and a sulfur loading of up to 68 wt%, which in turn allows for high sulfur loadings up to 47 % in the final cathode. The low‐cost starting materials together with the simple synthetic procedure and the good electrochemical performance in combination with a commercially available eslectrolyte make the S/PP‐500 a very promising cathode material for Li‐S batteries.