Organic Electrolyte Additive: Dual Functions Toward Fast Sulfur Conversion and Stable Li Deposition for Advanced Li-S...

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery is of great potential for the next generation energy storage device due to the high specific capacity energy density. However, the sluggish kinetics of S redox and the dendrite Li growth are the main challenges to hinder its commercial application. Herein, an organic electrolyte additive, i.e., benzyl chloride (BzCl), is applied as the remedy to address the two issues. In detail, BzCl can split into Bz· radical to react with the polysulfides, forming a Bz-S-Bz intermediate, which changes the conversion path of S and improves the kinetics by accelerating the S splitting. Meanwhile, a tight and robust solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) rich in inorganic ingredients namely LiCl, LiF, and Li₂O, is formed on the surface of Li metal, accelerating the ion conductivity and blocking the decomposition of the solvent and lithium polysulfides. Therefore, the Li-S battery with BzCl as the additive remains high capacity of 693.2 mAh g^-1 after 220 cycles at 0.5 C with a low decay rate of 0.11%. This work provides a novel strategy to boost the electrochemical performances in both cathode and anode and gives a guide on the electrolyte design toward high-performance Li-S batteries.