High Energy Density Poly(acrylonitrile)-Sulfur Composite-Based Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Sulfur-poly(acrylonitrile) (SPAN) composites were synthesized from different poly(acrylonitrile)- (PAN) sulfur mixtures. This way it was possible to increase the sulfur content and concomitantly the measured specific capacity of the final lithium-sulfur batteries from 300 mAh/g cathode to 440 mAh/g cathode (629 mAh/g composite , 1429 mAh/g sulfur ). A maximum of 44 wt-% of covalently bound sulfur was reached using a PAN-sulfur ratio of 1:15 (wt/wt). Virtually no loss of capacity was observed during the first 40 cycles.