Lithium sulfur (Li–S) batteries are extensively studied as promising next generation batteries because of their high theoretical discharge capacity of 1672 mAh/g and for their capability to function in a large temperature window. So far commercial use is still hindered among other things by the polysulfide shuttle which entails capacity fade and degradation. Currently the standard electrolyte used for Li–S batteries is 1 M LiTFSI, 0.2 M LiNO3 in 1,3-dioxolane (DOL)/dimethoxyethane (DME), in which the LiNO3 dampens the shuttle effect to some extent. Recent results show that the relatively hydrophobic solvent N,N-dimethyl triflamide (DMT) inhibits the polysulfide shuttle in Li–S batteries but for reasonable performance a temperature of 50 °C is needed.[1] To allow operation at lower temperatures mixtures of DMT with polar solvents e.g. THF or DOL are studied. To further decrease the shuttle effect in the presence of polar solvents the combination with a coordination polymer coating on the anode is investigated.[2] Other low polarity electrolytes adapted from literature are also subject of this study.[3] The obtained electrolyte system shows a comparable performance to the standard electrolyte while functioning with the simplest cathode composition and successfully mitigating the shuttle effect.

[1] A. Shyamsunder, W. Beichel, P. Klose, Q. Pang, H. Scherer, A. Hoffmann, G. K. Murphy, I. Krossing, L. F. Nazar, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2017, 56, 6192.
[2] W. Beichel, J. Skrotzki, P. Klose, C. Njel, B. Butschke, S. Burger, L. Liu, R. Thomann, Y. Thomann, D. Biro et al., Batteries & Supercaps 2022, 5.
[3] H. Cheng, S. Zhang, B. Zhang, Y. Lu, Small 2023, 19, e2206375.
F. Wu, F. Chu, G. A. Ferrero, M. Sevilla, A. B. Fuertes, O. Borodin, Y. Yu, G. Yushin, Nano letters 2020, 20, 5391.