Oxygen heteroatom enhanced sulfur-rich polymers synthesized by inverse vulcanization for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Sulfur-rich polymers, synthesized through inverse vulcanization, with tunable heteroatom containing crosslinkers were investigated as the S-containing cathode active material within Li–S cells. The polymers possess up to 73% active sulfur while, importantly, not containing any unreacted, crystalline sulfur. Li–S-polymer cells achieve specific capacities of 1206 mAh gs−1 for an active material polymer containing 80 wt% sulfur, with 10 wt% of a structural crosslinker (dicyclopentadiene), and 10 wt% of an oxygen-containing crosslinker (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate). The high capacity achieved within this composition is associated with of this sample, in a higher average sulfur rank within the polymer structure. Furthermore, S-polymers with heteroatomic crosslinkers exhibited lower capacity fade (0.093% per cycle) compared with polymers without functionalized heteroatomic crosslinkers (0.165% per cycle) and elemental sulfur (0.312% per cycle). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed the inherent binding between the ester group carbonyl oxygen within the crosslinker to the long-chain lithium polysulfides, which may inhibit dissolution of these intermediates.