Research progress of high performance cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract Lithium-sulfur battery is supposed to be a key for the next generation of energy storage devices due to its advantages of high energy density, high theoretical specific capacity, low cost and environmental friendliness, and has attracted extensive attention from researchers. However, the intermediate products of lithium-sulfur batteries are easily dissolved in the electrolyte to produce shuttle effect. In addition, there is volume expansion, low inherent conductivity, slow dynamics and other factors, which limit its commercial application. This paper describes the working principle of lithium-sulfur batteries, reviews the current research status of lithium-sulfur battery cathode materials, analyzes the existing problems of lithium-sulfur batteries, summarizes the improvement methods of cathode materials, and prospects the future development direction of lithium-sulfur batteries.