Challenges and Future Perspectives of Li–S Batteries

The growing acceptance of electric vehicles across the globe is the main factor driving the trend toward mobile electrification, which has resulted in an unparalleled increase in the demand for lithium-ion batteries. Consequently, it is now more important than ever to recycle batteries. The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery is being explored as a potential replacement for the present lithium-ion battery. It releases energy by combining lithium metal with highly plentiful sulfur. The Li-S battery can obtain a high theoretical specific capacity of 1675 mAh/g and specific energy of 2600 Wh/kg due to the sulfur cathode’s lightweight and multi-electron reaction. The “shuttle effect” of lithium polysulfides, significant volume changes, weak conductivity of sulfur and its solid-state derivatives, and the self-discharge phenomenon, on the other hand, restrict its practical utilization. The “shuttle effect” is acknowledged as the most significant issue influencing electrochemical performance out of all of these. Some of these techniques have shown early promise, but more work is required to reach a high enough performance level so that lithium metal may be employed in commercial Li-S cells. In this chapter, we examine the advantages and disadvantages of numerous suggested approaches to these problems, keeping in mind the constant objective of outperforming traditional Li-ion energy densities.