A Lithium‐Sulfur Battery with a High Areal Energy Density

The battery community has recently witnessed a considerable progress in the cycle lives of lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) batteries, mostly by developing the electrode structures that mitigate fatal dissolution of lithium polysulfides. Nonetheless, most of the previous successful demonstrations have been based on limited areal capacities. For realistic battery applications, however, the chronic issues from both the anode (lithium dendrite growth) and the cathode (lithium polysulfide dissolution) need to be readdressed under much higher loading of sulfur active material. To this end, the current study integrates the following three approaches in a systematic manner: 1) the sulfur electrode material with diminished lithium polysulfide dissolution by the covalently bonded sulfur‐carbon microstructure, 2) mussel‐inspired polydopamine coating onto the separator that suppresses lithium dendrite growth …