Review on areal capacities and long-term cycling performances of lithium sulfur battery at high sulfur loading

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) show promise as commercial batteries for electric vehicles (EV), portable devices and grid storage due to its low cost and high theoretical energy density. For EV applications, the areal capacity of LSBs needs to reach similar to 6 mAh cm(-2) to compete with the state-of-the-art LIBs. However, currently the practical application of LSBs is a great challenge due to low sulfur loading, self-discharge and low sulfur utilization. As such, different strategies have been investigated to improve the feasibility of LSBs at high sulfur loading. Such approaches are critical, but few articles have focused on the areal capacity at high sulfur loading and long term cycling performance of LSBs. This review highlights the recent progress of LSBs at high sulfur loading to achieve feasible areal capacity and long-term cycling performance. Particular attention has been placed on the cathode and separators modifications, with a discussion around anode and electrolyte modifications to improve the LSB performance.