LAUSR

Abstract The usage of Li metal in lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery has largely hampered the application of Li-S battery due to the formation of Li dendrite during cycling. Here, a novel potentiostatic (p-stat) lithiation method was developed to fabricate Li2Sx cathode. The pre-lithiated Li2Sx cathode can be used to pair with the Li metal free anode to make a full cell with better safety. The dissolution of the polysulfide in electrolyte is the main problem in S cathode, which leads to severe active material loss during lithiation process. Normally, the way to alleviate the dissolution of polysulfide is by trapping the polysulfide from diffusing into the electrolyte. In this work, it is innovatively raised the p-stat lithiation method which can suppress the formation of polysulfides. As a result, dissolution of polysulfide species could be kinetically suppressed. The p-stat lithiated Li2Sx cathode exhibits higher capacity performance (around 400 mAh g−1) than the galvanostatic (g-stat) lithiated Li2Sx cathode. The Li metal free full cell assembled by pairing p-stat lithiated Li2Sx cathode with graphite anode shows stable cyclability.