Ether-compatible sulfurized polyacrylonitrile cathode with excellent performance enabled by fast kinetics via selenium doping.

Sulfurized polyacrylonitrile is suggested to contain S (n ≤ 4) and shows good electrochemical performance in carbonate electrolytes for lithium sulfur batteries. However inferior results in ether electrolytes suggest that high solubility of LiS (n ≤ 4) trumps the limited redox conversion, leading to dissolution and shuttling. Here, we introduce a small amount of selenium in sulfurized polyacrylonitrile to accelerate the redox conversion, delivering excellent performance in both carbonate and ether electrolytes, including high reversible capacity (1300 mA h g at 0.2 A g), 84% active material utilization and high rate (capacity up to 900 mA h g at 10 A g). These cathodes can undergo 800 cycles with nearly 100% Coulombic efficiency and ultralow 0.029% capacity decay per cycle. Polysulfide dissolution is successfully suppressed by enhanced reaction kinetics. This work demonstrates an ether compatible sulfur cathode involving intermediate LiS (n ≤ 4), attractive rate and cycling performance, and a promising solution towards applicable lithium-sulfur batteries.