Although well-known and studied for centuries, sulfur continues to be at the center of an extensive array of scientific research topics. As one of the most abundant elements in the Universe, a major by-product of oil refinery processes, and as a common reaction site within biological systems, research involving sulfur is both broad in scope and incredibly important to our daily lives. Indeed, there has been renewed interest in sulfur-based reactions in just the past ten years. Sulfur research spans the spectrum of topics within the physical sciences including research on improving energy efficiency, environmentally friendly uses for oil refinery waste products, development of polymers with unique optical and mechanical properties, and materials produced for biological applications. This Review focuses on some of the latest exciting ways in which sulfur and sulfur-based reactions are being utilized to produce materials for application in energy, environmental, and other practical areas.

Sulfur and Its Role In Modern Materials Science.

Polymerizations with elemental sulfur: A novel route to high sulfur content polymers for sustainability, energy and defense

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0171514jes/pdf

Review—The Importance of Chemical Interactions between Sulfur Host Materials and Lithium Polysulfides for Advanced Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Elemental sulfur has been known since Antiquity and found widespread applications in the preparation of black gunpowder, the synthesis of sulfuric acid as well as other sulfur-containing compounds, and the vulcanization of rubber. Over the last several years, we have come to better understand its properties and discover more applications of elemental sulfur in synthetic organic chemistry. This review summarizes the advances from 2000 in the construction of organic molecules using elemental sulfur via sulfuration, oxidation, reduction and redox condensation processes.

Recent Advances in Organic Reactions Involving Elemental Sulfur

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2017/gc/c7gc00014f

Green chemistry and polymers made from sulfur

High sulfur content copolymers were prepared via inverse vulcanization of sulfur with 1,4-diphenylbutadiyne (DiPhDY) for use as the active cathode material in lithium–sulfur batteries. These sulfur-rich polymers exhibited excellent capacity retention (800 mA h g−1 at 300 cycles) and extended battery lifetimes of over 850 cycles at C/5 rate.

Alexander Florian

Papers

Inverse vulcanization of elemental sulfur with 1,4-diphenylbutadiyne for cathode materials in Li–S batteries