Inverse Vulcanization of a Natural Monoene with Sulfur as Sustainable Electrochemically Active Materials for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries  
[PERSON]  
1 School of Physics and Electronic Information, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao 334001, China; LZC131779703590163.com12 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China 2  
[PERSON]  
1 School of Physics and Electronic Information, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao 334001, China; LZC131779703590163.com1  
[PERSON]  
3 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China 3  
[PERSON]  
3 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiujiang University, Jiujiang 332005, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS](W.Z.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS](N.D.)4 School of Chemical and Environmental Sciences, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao 334001, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
[PERSON]  
4 School of Chemical and Environmental Sciences, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao 334001, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS](F.Z.)4 School of Chemical and Environmental Sciences, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao 334001, China; liuijjun71@1616.  
whole battery. The use of sulfur-containing polymers as cathode materials has been an effective way to solve these problems, because polymers have various molecular structures and definable functional groups, and suitable monomer design enables the target polymer to have good properties such as ionic and electronic conductivity, high sulfur content, suitable viscosity, processability, and controllable morphology. These features all contribute to the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, and the active sulfur is restrained in the polymer chain network through either chemical bonding or physical confinement, which can impede the dissolution of polysulfides in the electrolyte. Moreover, polymers can render an elastic framework which can hold about 20% volume expansion of sulfur.  
To prepare a new sulfur-containing polymer, in 2013, [PERSON] et al. pioneered inverse vulcanization synthesis of sulfur copolymer using elemental sulfur and 1,3-diisopropylbenzene (DIB) as raw materials. This sulfur copolymer can accommodate a large percentage of sulfur--up to 99%--and presents excellent electrochemical performance compared to elemental sulfur when used as cathode active materials for Li-S batteries. Then, a number of sulfur copolymers are prepared by this facile and inexpensive method, such as poly(S-DVB) [16], poly(S-co-DiPhDY) [17], poly(S-r-BUMB18C6) [18], poly(S-BMI) [19], poly(OLA-r-S) [20], poly(S-r-Sty) [21], poly(S-r-UDOL) [22]. However, most of the raw materials of these polymers are petroleum products and are not renewable. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to develop new sulfur-containing polymers with sustainable materials as raw materials [23; 24].  
In this work, 4-Methyl-5-vinylthiazole (MVT), a nitrogen and sulfur-containing heterocyclic monoene compound, and natural product found in cocoa, _Passiflora edulia_ Sims, etc., was first used to synthesize a novel sulfur copolymer poly(S-MVT) by inverse vulcanization with elemental sulfur. The as-synthesized polymers possess protonated thiazole nitrogen atoms, meso/macroporous structure, and solubility in tetrahydrofuran and chloroform. The electrochemical properties of the poly(S-MVT)s were investigated in detail. When used as cathode material of a Li-S battery, poly(S-MVT) (15% MVT) delivered an initial specific capacity of 872 mA h g\({}^{-1}\) (based on the mass of poly(S-MVT)) with an initial coulombic efficiency of 96.57% and 514 mA h g\({}^{-1}\) after 100 cycles at 0.1 C (1 C = 167.5 mA g\({}^{-1}\)). This provides a new choice for sustainable cathode materials for Li-S batteries.