Recent Approaches for the Direct Use of Elemental Sulfur in the Synthesis and Processing of Advanced Materials

Abstract

Elemental sulfur is an abundant and inexpensive material obtained as a by-product of natural-gas and petroleum refining operations. Recently, the need for the development of new energy-storage systems brought into light the potential of sulfur as a high-capacity cathode material in secondary batteries. Sulfur-containing materials were also shown to have useful IR optical properties. These developments coupled with growing environmental concerns related to the global production of excess elemental sulfur have led to a keen interest in its utilization as a feedstock in materials applications. This Minireview focuses on the recent developments on physical and chemical methods for directly processing elemental sulfur to produce functional composites and polymers.

Reactive Hybrid of Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS) and Sulfur as a Building Block for Self‐Healing Materials

“…In addition to the self‐healing feature, incorporation of sulfur chains to cured MMA‐POSS material also enhances its transparency in the mid‐infrared region . As a sample in a certain thickness is required for lens application, the 400 µm free‐standing films have been prepared and measured.…”

Laying Waste to Mercury: Inexpensive Sorbents Made from Sulfur and Recycled Cooking Oils

“…Recently, the synthesis of polysulfides by inverse vulcanisation has ushered in a new class of materials with high sulfur content. Pioneered by Pyun, Char, and co‐workers, this process involves melting elemental sulfur and then heating it above its floor temperature of 159 °C. Thermal homolysis of S−S bonds in S 8 leads to radical ring‐opening polymerisation .…”

A novel separator coated by carbon for achieving exceptional high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

“…The poor utilization of active material results from the insulating nature of sulfur, which limits the electron transfer during the electrochemical reactions [11][12][13][14][15]. The fast capacity fading is due to the dissolution of lithium polysulfide intermediates (Li 2 S x , 4 ≤ x ≤ 8) in the electrolyte and the low Coulombic efficiency is caused by the internal "shuttle reaction" [16][17][18].…”