Complete Encapsulation Of Sulfur Through Interfacial Energy Control Of Sulfur Solutions For High-Performance Li-S Batteries

Complete encapsulation of high-content sulfur in porous carbon is crucial for high performance Li-S batteries. To this end, unlike conventional approaches to control the pore of carbon hosts, we demonstrate controlling the interfacial energy of the solution in the process of penetrating the sulfur-dissolved solution. We un-veil, experimentally and theoretically, that the interfacial energy with the carbon surface of the sulfur solution is the key to driving complete encapsulation of sulfur. In the infiltration of sulfur solu-tions with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, we achieve complete encapsu-lation of sulfur, even up to 85 wt %. The sulfur fully encapsulated cathode achieves markedly high volumetric capacity and stable cycle operation in its Li-S battery applications. We achieve a vol-umetric capacity of 855 mAh/cm(3) at 0.2C and a capacity reduction of 0.071% per cycle up to 300 cycles at 1C.