Car companies have promoted the slogan of "thousand-kilometer battery life", and semi-solid and sodium batteries have appeared in turn. It seems that every press conference is refreshing people's expectations for electric vehicles. However, the soaring price of lithium carbonate is like a tight string, dragging the entire industry into cost anxiety. Just when everyone is focusing on the "solid-state end", a piece of news from Sichuan has set off a new wave - a team from Sichuan University has successfully cracked the century-old problem of lithium-sulfur batteries. Experimental data shows that the discharge platform is as high as 3.3V and the energy density exceeds 980Wh/kg, which is a new record for sulfur-based batteries.
For someone like me who has always paid attention to new energy, the shock of that moment was no less than seeing mankind take the first step to land on the moon. Lithium-sulfur batteries, a word hailed as a "potential stock" by scientific research circles, have finally seen the dawn of real industrialization. Compared with existing ternary lithium batteries, the theoretical energy density of the lithium-sulfur system can reach 2600Wh/kg, which is more than ten times the latter. In other words, if the technology is implemented, the battery life of electric vehicles can easily exceed 2,000 kil
Car companies have promoted the slogan of "thousand-kilometer battery life", and semi-solid and sodium batteries have appeared in turn. It seems that every press conference is refreshing people's expectations for electric vehicles. However, the soaring price of lithium carbonate is like a tight string, dragging the entire industry into cost anxiety. Just when everyone is focusing on the "solid-state end", a piece of news from Sichuan has set off a new wave - a team from Sichuan University has successfully cracked the century-old problem of lithium-sulfur batteries. Experimental data shows that the discharge platform is as high as 3.3V and the energy density exceeds 980Wh/kg, which is a new record for sulfur-based batteries.
For someone like me who has always paid attention to new energy, the shock of that moment was no less than seeing mankind take the first step to land on the moon. Lithium-sulfur batteries, a word hailed as a "potential stock" by scientific research circles, have finally seen the dawn of real industrialization. Compared with existing ternary lithium batteries, the theoretical energy density of the lithium-sulfur system can reach 2600Wh/kg, which is more than ten times the latter. In other words, if the technology is implemented, the battery life of electric vehicles can easily exceed 2,000 kilometers, and the battery weight can be reduced by one-third. There is no need to worry about the embarrassment of "slumping" battery in winter.
What makes me even more excited is its cost attribute. Materials such as sulfur, copper, and lithium have abundant reserves and do not rely on scarce metals. This not only avoids the risk of skyrocketing prices of cobalt and nickel, but also makes the new energy industry more stable. In 2026, when the price of lithium carbonate is soaring, this route of "not relying on precious metals for performance" seems particularly pragmatic.
But there is a name that stands between ideal and reality - the shuttle effect. This has always been the biggest problem with lithium-sulfur batteries. During the discharge process, lithium polysulfide is like a group of "restless urchins", constantly scurrying between the positive and negative electrodes, not only causing capacity loss, but also sharply reducing battery life, becoming a "natural chasm" that blocks the mass production of technology.
In the past, whether it was functionalizing the separator or modifying the electrolyte, the scientific research team had not found a radical solution. Until the emergence of the team of Lin Zifeng and Dai Chunlong of Sichuan University, they solved this problem with an almost "simple and crude" solution - introducing copper ions to build a dual-ion hybrid architecture system.
The beauty of this design lies in the "role exchange". In their new system, copper ions become the protagonist of the positive electrode, replacing traditional lithium ions to participate in the reaction; the electrolyte is separated into two spaces by an anion exchange membrane, the positive electrode chamber is filled with copper perchlorate, the negative electrode chamber is filled with lithium perchlorate, and the charge balance is maintained by the free movement of anions. In this way, sulfur directly generates copper sulfide insoluble in the electrolyte at the positive electrode, which is equivalent to closing the door for "polysulfide shuttle". Copper sulfide is more conductive and allows the battery to respond more smoothly.
Even more surprising is that the high reaction potential of copper ions allows the discharge platform to jump from the traditional 2.1V to 3.3V, setting a new record for sulfur-based batteries. Based on laboratory data, the energy density of this lithium-sulfur battery can reach 980Wh/kg. Even if it is conservatively estimated to reach 500–700Wh/kg after commercialization in the future, it will be enough to surpass all competing products.
In contrast, the current energy density of mainstream semi-solid-state batteries is about 300Wh/kg, and even though sodium batteries are making rapid progress, they are still hovering within 175Wh/kg. More importantly, the lithium-sulfur route abandons expensive metals, greatly reduces costs, is safer, and has no risk of oxygen release, providing more stable protection for power batteries and energy storage systems.
The Sichuan University team did not stop there. They simultaneously laid out the "zinc-sulfur route" - using zinc as the negative electrode, aqueous electrolyte as the medium, and then regulating it through copper ions, they successfully improved the low-temperature performance and focused on the energy storage field. From then on, the dual-track layout of "one movement and one storage" gradually took shape.
For the entire industry, this is not just a technological advancement, but more like a conceptual change. While the outside world is still debating whether solid-state is the end game, Sichuan University’s research reminds us: the future energy world will not be a road leading to the end, but a garden in full bloom, with hundreds of schools of thought contending and evolving in technology.
I believe that this breakthrough will not only allow car companies to re-evaluate their battery roadmaps, but will also give new hope to the energy storage market. Longer battery life, lower cost, and higher safety—this is the trio that is most desired in the new energy era. Behind the scenes, there is a group of Chinese scientific researchers who have used more than ten years of persistence to knock on the door of the world's energy technology.
Of course, the halo of the laboratory is still some way away from industrialization, and process optimization and film cost control during mass production will take time to overcome. However, from the accelerated commercialization of sodium batteries to the breakthrough of the core bottleneck of lithium-sulfur batteries, we have seen that China’s scientific research power is rewriting the global battery landscape at an alarming rate.
Perhaps in the future, our electric vehicles will not only travel further, but also run more stably and be more environmentally friendly. When we talk about the wave of new energy, the light in the laboratory of Sichuan University may be illuminating the direction of the next era.
