Acceleration of Cathode Interfacial Kinetics by Liquid Organosulfides in Lithium Metal Batteries

Great efforts have been made to tackle the issues of the shuttle effect and kinetics hysteresis in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery, but few on tuning the reaction path of sulfur cathode. Herein, we report a strategy to replace inorganic sulfur with liquid organosulfide and construct a novel liquid-liquid interface between cathode and electrolyte, which effectively inhibits the shuttle effect and simplifies the solid-liquid-solid conversion reaction to only liquid-solid process, thus greatly improving the reaction kinetics. The Li|PTS half-cell exhibits excellent cycling stability at 0.5 C, with a capacity retention of 64.9 % after 750 cycles. The Li|PTS pouch cell with a high PTS loading of 3.1 g delivers a maximum capacity of 997 mAh and maintains 82.1 % of initial capacity after 50 cycles at the current of 100 mA. This work enriches the reaction mechanism of Li-S batteries and provides new insights for the development of interphase chemistry in the design of cathodes.