The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have high theoretical energy density, exceeding that of the lithium-ion batteries. However, their practical applications are hindered by the capacity decay due to lithium polysulfide shuttle effect and sulfur volume expansion. Here, we design a S@hollow carbon with porous shell/MnO_x (S@HCS/MnO_x) cathode to accommodate and immobilize sulfur and polysulfides, and develop a non-destructive technique X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) to in situ visualize the volume expansion of Li-S cathode. The designed cathode achieves a specific capacity of ~1100 mAh g^-1 at 0.2 ​C with a fade rate of 0.18% per cycle over 300 cycles. The X-ray CT shows that only 16% volume expansion and 70% volume fraction of solid sulfur remaining in the S@HCS/MnO_x cathode, superior to the commercial cathode with 40% volume expansion and 5% volume remaining of solid sulfur particles. This is the first reported visualization evidence for the effectiveness of hollow carbon structure in accommodating cathode volume expansion and immobilizing sulfur shuttling. X-ray CT can serve as a powerful in situ tool to trace the active materials and then feedback to the structure design, which helps develop efficient and reliable energy storage systems.

锂硫（Li-S）电池具有较高的理论能量密度，超过了锂离子电池的理论能量密度。然而，由于多硫化锂的穿梭效应和硫的体积膨胀，其容量下降阻碍了它们的实际应用。在这里，我们设计了具有多孔壳/ MnO _x（S @ HCS / MnO _x）阴极的S @空心碳，以容纳和固定硫和多硫化物，并开发了无损技术X射线计算机断层扫描（X射线CT）以原位观察Li-S阴极的体积膨胀。设计的阴极可实现约1100 mAh g ^-1的比容量在0.2 C下，300个周期内每个周期的衰减率为0.18％。X射线CT显示S @ HCS / MnO _x阴极中仅保留16％的体积膨胀和70％的体积分数的固体硫，优于市售阴极，其具有40％的体积膨胀和5％的固体硫颗粒体积。这是首次报道的可视化证据，表明中空碳结构在适应阴极体积膨胀和固定硫穿梭方面的有效性。X射线CT可以作为强大的现场工具来追踪活性材料，然后反馈给结构设计，这有助于开发高效而可靠的能量存储系统。