Phosphorous containing inverse vulcanised sulfur polymers as Li–sulfur positive electrodes

Abstract

The synthesis and electrochemical evaluation of ternary sulfur – diphenyl(4-vinylphenyl) phosphine – dicyclopentadiene (SPD) polymers is reported. Polymers with a homogenous particle size around 80 nm were prepared by inverse vulcanisation and anti-solvent precipitation methods. The nanoparticulate polymer led to a uniform morphology of the electrode and high accessibility of the electrochemically active sulfur leading to a specific capacity of 1436 mAh g_s⁻¹ and improved cycling stability, relative to comparative samples prepared at micrometre scale.