The challenge with lithium suphur batteries is they will have limited application as they can be charged up to between 50-100 times (under real life conditions) before significant battery deterioration. There are some reports in controlled environment laboratory conditions, they have been able to achieve a 300 cycles. Whereby, current lithium ion batteries have charging cycles upwards of 1200 times and more suited to regular recharge and discharge cycles.
While there are prospective battery technologies being explored, many have limitations (such as durability) which still need to be overcome.
There are other available technologies such as Zinc-Bromide Flow Batteries which don’t deteriorate like traditional metal rechargeable batteries (near 100% recharge capacity can be achieved until the solution collapses after 3500+ charging cycles and needs replacement). Non-lithium based batteries also don’t face the future environmental challenges that mining of lithium in extremely ecologically sensitive environments face and challenging waste byproducts, to meet the anticipated demand for such batteries.
