Rechargeable batteries with conversion type electrodes are attractive due to their ability to achieve higher capacity through multi-electron transfer reactions. Elemental sulfur is one of the most interesting materials amongst all conversion-based cathodes because of its high theoretical capacity (~1675 mAh/g – 5-10-fold higher than Li-ion batteries), natural abundance, non-toxicity, and cost-effectiveness. In this talk, I will provide glimpses of our group’s research on integrating material design and fabrication, in-operando and postmortem spectroscopy, and device assembly and testing (coin/pouch) to study and develop next generation lithium-sulfur batteries. In particular, I will discuss our projects on studying cathode chemistries to first mitigate polysulfide shuttle via host-polysulfide interactions followed by tailoring of S redox to trigger single plateau behavior for long-term cycle stability.