Introduction to the focus issue on lithium-sulfur batteries: Materials, mechanisms, modeling, and applications

Despite immense effort to solve the problem of lithium polysulfide dissolution in Li-S batteries, only partially successful solutions have been found for liquid-based electrolytes. Further research efforts to showcase new sulfur, positive electrode technologies should ensure they demonstrate commercially applicable sulfur loadings of > 3 mg/cm 2 , electrolyte to sulfur weight ratios < 3 and current densities > C/2. Alternatively, by using solid electrolytes lithium polysulfide dissolution is eliminated and research can be refocused on the cell-limiting factor of reversibly stripping and plating Li metal without dendrite growth.