Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Even though tremendous achievement has been made experimentally in the performance of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery, theoretical studies in this area are lagging behind due to the complexity of the Li–S systems and the effects of solvent. For this purpose, a new methodology is developed for investigating the 2D hexaaminobenzene-based coordination polymers (2D-HAB-CPs) as cathode candidate materials for Li–S batteries via density functional theory calculations in combination with an in-house developed charge polarized solvent model and a genetic algorithm structure global search code. With high ratios of transition metal atoms and two-coordinated nitrogen atoms, excellent electric conductivity, and structural porosity, the 2D-HAB-CP is able to address all of the three main challenges facing Li–S batteries: confining the lithium polysulfides from dissolution, facilitating the electron conductivity and buffering the volumetric expansion during the lithiation process. In addition, the theoretical energy density of this system is as high as 1395 Wh kg−1. These results demonstrate that the 2D-HAB-CP is a promising cathode material for Li–S batteries. The proposed computational framework not only opens a new avenue for understanding the key role played by solution and liquid electrolytes in Li–S batteries, but also can be generally applied to other processes with liquids involved.