Abstract
Emerging lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries for load levelling and transport is challenging, especially for materials chemistry, and will be a major focus for upcoming years. However, in the longer term, Li-ion batteries (LIBs) cannot deliver high-energy densities and more radical approaches are necessary. There are several options to go beyond this limit and one of the possibilities for achieving longer storage life and high-energy batteries associated with cost and environmental advantages is the lithium\textendash sulfur (Li\textendash S) system which can theoretically offer three to five fold increase in energy density compared with conventional Li-ion cells. Although the Li\textendash S system has interested the battery community for more than five decades, 1 it still faces issues such as poor cycle life, to reach the market place.2 \textcopyright 2017 by World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd.