Using of various metal species for improvement of electrochemical performances of lithium sulfur batteries

Abstract

Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries have been considered as next-generation rechargeable batteries beyond lithium-ion batteries owing to high capacity, high energy density and low cost. However, this battery suffers from poor cycle life that is major technical barrier because of shuttling of soluble polysulfide intermediates and volume expansion of S cathode during cycling. A wide range of nanostructured metal species are developed to solve commercialization issues of Li-S batteries. In this review, various strategies for utilizing excellent properties of pure metal element and metal species including oxides, hydroxides, sulfides and nitrides to form strong chemical bond with sulfur discharge products are summarized. It is important point that the design of the metal based structures and different parameters like amount of material for coating, host, additive or interlayer play a vital role in assessing the quality of the proposed materials. Optimizing all parameters especially about high potential materials will help to achieve accepted outputs that will help Li-S battery in a road of commercialization • The interactions between sulfur/polysulfides and different metal species are considered. • The inherent potential of metal based- polar materials to trap intermediates discharge products are reported. • The good results of metal appearance in structure of Li-S batteries are reviewed.