Electrochemical reactions of lithium-sulfur batteries: an analytical study using the organic conversion technique.

This investigation elucidates the electrochemical reaction process occurring within lithium-sulfur battery cells in detail, which has been unclear even after a half century of study primarily due to the very high reactivity of the polysulfide species. The polysulfide intermediates were deactivated by organic conversion - benzylization, and LC/MS and NMR analyses were first applied. The results demonstrate that the second voltage plateau in the discharge profile, which is the most important step in practical use because of its constant voltage, is dominated by the reduction of the Li2S3 intermediate. The first voltage plateau and the transition state between the plateaus, in which the voltage varies with the capacity, are associated with multiple reactions including the decomposition of S8 into Li2Sx (x = 1 to 7) and the transformation of Li2Sy (y = 4 to 8) into Li2Sz (z = 1 to 3). It is also revealed that longer polysulfide species, Li2Si (i = 6 to 8), are responsible for the redox shuttle phenomenon, which causes serious capacity degradation.