Rational Engineering of Electrolytes for Lithium Sulfur Batteries

Abstract

The threatening challenges such as poor safety, limited availability of lithium and the presence of expensive elements like nickel, cobalt in the state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries have accelerated extensive research beyond lithium-ion batteries. In the past two decades, lithium sulfur batteries have been extensively researched and has entered a key stage for commercialization. However, the critical issues such as self-discharge and lithium polysulfide shuttling which are intrinsic properties of electrolytes have to be conquered. This mini review comprehensively illustrates the underpinning issues of lithium sulfur batteries particularly related to electrolytes and strategies employed to overcome these challenges based on the articles published after year 2020.