Insight into demand-driven preparation of single-atomic mediators for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted considerable attention as one of the most appealing energy storage systems. Strenuous efforts have been devoted to tackling the tremendous challenges, mainly pertaining to the severe shuttle effect, sluggish redox kinetics and lithium dendritic growth. Single-atomic mediators as promising candidates exhibit impressive performance in addressing these intractable issues. Related research often utilizes a trial-and-error approach, proposing solutions to fabricate single-atomic materials with diversified features. However, comprehensive review articles especially targeting demand-driven preparation are still in a nascent stage. Inspired by these considerations, this review summarizes the design of single-atomic mediators based on the application case-studies in Li-S batteries and other metal-sulfur systems. Emerging preparation routes represented by chemical vapor deposition technology are introduced in a demand-oriented classification. Finally, future research directions are proposed to foster the advancement of single-atomic mediators in Li-S realm.