Chemistry-Performance Relationships of Polymer Gel-Electrolytes for Mg-S and Li-S Batteries: Influence of Network Cation Solvation Capacity on Polymer-Polysulfide Interactions

Metal-sulfur batteries are a promising next-generation energy storage technology, offering high theoretical energy densities with low cost and good sustainability. An active area of research is the development of electrolytes that address unwanted migration of sulfur and intermediate species known as polysulfides during operation of metal-sulfur batteries, a phenomenon that leads to low energy efficiency and short life-spans. A particular class of electrolytes, gel polymer electrolytes, are especially attractive for their ability to repel polysulfides on the basis of structure, electrostatics, and other polymer properties. Herein, within the context of magnesium- and lithium-sulfur batteries, we investigate the impact of gel polymer electrolyte cation solvation capacity, a property related to network dielectric constant and chemistry, on sulfur/polysulfide-polymer interactions, an understudied property-performance relationship. Polymers with lower cation solvation capacity are found to permanently absorb less polysulfide active material, which increases sulfur utilization for Li-S batteries and significantly increases charge efficiency and life-span for Li-S and Mg-S batteries.