Document Type

Article

Abstract

Catalysis is widely explored in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries to address challenges related to limited capacity and cycle durability. Despite extensive research, catalyst development has often focused on materials without a clear understanding of the mechanistic landscape underlying the complex, multi-step, multi-electron sulfur redox pathway. In fact, our understanding of the thermodynamic, kinetic, and mass transport framework in Li–S systems is still evolving, particularly with respect to the reaction pathways during charge and discharge, and the dynamic evolution of materials in both liquid and solid phases. These evolving insights may fundamentally shift the requirements for catalyst design and future research priorities. Therefore, this perspective aims to establish the fundamental roles of catalysts in Li–S batteries, providing a mechanism-based reference applicable to both existing and emerging material systems. The discussion is organized around four core catalytic functions: LiPS adsorption, ion and electron transport, conversion of intermediate species, and decomposition of discharge products. For each, representative catalytic strategy, structure–property relationships, and the underlying physical and electrochemical principles are discussed. By decoupling catalytic function from specific material classes, this conceptual framework identifies unifying design principles and highlights critical knowledge gaps with the goal to guide the rational design of next-generation catalysts with mechanism-informed, function-specific performance in Li–S systems.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-01015-7

Rights

© The Author(s) 2025 

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

APA Citation

Lateef, S., & Jalilvand, G. (2025). Mechanistic roles and design criteria for catalysts in lithium–sulfur batteries. Communications Materials, 6, Article 282. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-01015-7

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