title: The use of elemental sulfur as an alternative feedstock for polymeric materials.
abstract: An excess of elemental sulfur is generated annually from hydrodesulfurization in petroleum refining processes; however, it has a limited number of uses, of which one example is the production of sulfuric acid. Despite this excess, the development of synthetic and processing methods to convert elemental sulfur into useful chemical substances has not been investigated widely. Here we report a facile method (termed 'inverse vulcanization') to prepare chemically stable and processable polymeric materials through the direct copolymerization of elemental sulfur with vinylic monomers. This methodology enabled the modification of sulfur into processable copolymer forms with tunable thermomechanical properties, which leads to well-defined sulfur-rich micropatterned films created by imprint lithography. We also demonstrate that these copolymers exhibit comparable electrochemical properties to elemental sulfur and could serve as the active material in Li-S batteries, exhibiting high specific capacity (823 mA h g(-1) at 100 cycles) and enhanced capacity retention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, 1306 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Woo Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Jared J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Griebel
authors.forename: Eui Tae
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyunsik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Adam G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Simmonds
authors.forename: Hyun Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Philip T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Dirlam
authors.forename: Richard S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Glass
authors.forename: Jeong Jae
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wie
authors.forename: Ngoc A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Brett W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Guralnick
authors.forename: Jungjin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Arpád
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Somogyi
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Theato
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mackay
authors.forename: Yung-Eun
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Kookheon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Char
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pyun
mesh_terms: D000475:Alkenes / Q000737:chemistry; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D007700:Kinetics; D008094:Lithium / Q000737:chemistry; D058105:Polymerization; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D012212:Rheology; D012995:Solubility; D013455:Sulfur / Q000737:chemistry*; D044366:Transition Temperature
chemical_list: D000475:Alkenes; D011108:Polymers; D013455:Sulfur; D008094:Lithium