Polysulfide rubber-based sulfur-rich composites as cathode material for high energy lithium/sulfur batteries

• Sulfur-rich polysulfide rubber composites were prepared by facile vulcanization.
• Sulfur(S8) trapped in the network of vulcanized rubber(C-Sm-C) and polysulfide(Sn).
• The composites showed good electrochemical activity and cycle stability.

Novel sulfur-rich polymer composites were prepared from the commercial polysulfide rubber through facile vulcanization methods and were firstly used as cathode material for lithium/sulfur batteries. The sulfur enriched in the composites includes three parts, the first part was inserted into the main chains of the polysulfide rubber, the second part formed insoluble polysulfide (-Sn-)through self-polymerization and the third part was trapped inside the network of the above two polymer chains. The obtained sulfur-rich polymer composites have high sulfur content over 80%. Compared with the pure sulfur electrode, the composites showed better cycle stability and coulomb efficiency.

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