Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma Coating of Sulfur for Mitigation of Capacity Fade in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Sulfur particles with a conductive polymer coating of poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) “PEDOT” were prepared by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma technology under atmospheric conditions (low temperature, ambient pressure). We report solvent-free, low-cost, low-energy-consumption, safe, and low-risk process to make the material development production compatible for sustainable technologies. Different protocols developed produce PEDOT-coated sulfur powders electrical conductivity in range 10–8–10–5 S/cm. The raw powder (used as reference) (low-, optimum-, high-) used assemble lithium–sulfur (Li–S) cells high loading ?4.5 mg/cm2. Long-term galvanostatic cycling at C/10 100 cycles showed that capacity fade was mitigated ?30% containing optimum-PEDOT-coated comparison reference Li–S sulfur. Rate capability, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance analyzes confirmed improved behavior an active batteries. highest reproducibility their properties. A wide variety bulk surface characterization methods including analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), NMR explain chemical features superior using material. Moreover, postmortem [SEM Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)] uncoated coated samples allowed us exclude any significant effect electrode scale even after 70 cycles.