Hybrid cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract

Abstract This review demonstrates the approaches to fabricate hybrid cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. This short review does not claim to cover all recently published data; instead, an effort is aimed to show how the critical issues on carbon – sulfur hybrid are addressed based on selected articles in last couple of years. The influence of porous structure of carbon, the confinement effect of polysulfides in narrow micropores, and importance of hierarchical porosity are explained. Besides, the heteroatom doping on carbon in carbon–sulfur hybrids plays a vital role on improvement of bulk electronic conductivity of electrode. This review presents the twin polymerization strategy for direct preparation of nanoscale intermixed hybrid materials. Finally, the formation of sulfur containing copolymers by reacting sulfur melt with functional vinyl monomers are shown in this review with selected examples postulating the respective potential for future generation energy storage technology from the viewpoint of industrial applications.