title: Functional Organosulfide Electrolyte Promotes an Alternate Reaction Pathway to Achieve High Performance in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.
abstract: Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have recently received great attention because they promise to provide energy density far beyond current lithium ion batteries. Typically, Li-S batteries operate by conversion of sulfur to reversibly form different soluble lithium polysulfide intermediates and insoluble lithium sulfides through multistep redox reactions. Herein, we report a functional electrolyte system incorporating dimethyl disulfide as a co-solvent that enables a new electrochemical reduction pathway for sulfur cathodes. This pathway uses soluble dimethyl polysulfides and lithium organosulfides as intermediates and products, which can boost cell capacity and lead to improved discharge-charge reversibility and cycling performance of sulfur cathodes. This electrolyte system can potentially enable Li-S batteries to achieve high energy density.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Shuru
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3805-8331
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9229-5576
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Mikhail L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3931-4774
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gordin
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Zhaoxin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1478-4689
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7559-1288
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Jiangxuan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6046-0760
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. dwang@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Donghai
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-8510
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: batteries; dimethyl disulfide; electrolytes; lithium-sulfur; organosulfides