A Multifunctional Separator Enables Safe and Durable Lithium/Magnesium–Sulfur Batteries under Elevated Temperature

Rechargeable metal–sulfur batteries encounter severe safety hazards and fast capacity decay, caused by the flammable and shrinkable separator and unwanted polysulfide dissolution under elevated temperatures. Herein, a multifunctional Janus separator is designed by integrating temperature endurable electrospinning polyimide nonwovens with a copper nanowire-graphene nanosheet functional layer and a rigid lithium lanthanum zirconium oxide-polyethylene oxide matrix. Such architecture offers multifold advantages: i) intrinsically high dimensional stability and flame-retardant capability, ii) excellent electrolyte wettability and effective metal dendritic growth inhibition, and iii) powerful physical blockage/chemical anchoring capability for the shuttled polysulfides. As a consequence, the as constructed lithium–sulfur battery using a pure sulfur cathode displays an outstandingly high discharge capacity of 1402.1 mAh g⁻¹ and a record high cycling stability (approximately average 0.24% capacity decay per cycle within 300 cycles) at 80 °C, outperforming the state-of-the-art results in the literature. Promisingly, a high sulfur mass loading of ≈3.0 mg cm⁻² and a record low electrolyte/sulfur ratio of 6.0 are achieved. This functional separator also performs well for a high temperature magnesium–sulfur battery. This work demonstrates a new concept for high performance metal–sulfur battery design and promises safe and durable operation of the next generation energy storage systems.