Lithium ion batteries (LIB) have proven a key enabling technology for consumer electronics and are setting the stage for a revolution in transportation. Electric vehicles (EV), whether on land, sea, or air, are increasingly gaining market share over vehicles powered by the traditional combustion engine. Environmental concerns and stringent laws continue to drive increasing global demand for EVs; however, LIB’s are an expensive part of the vehicle-especially compared to combustible engines. Among the most promising replacements for the current commercial lithium ion chemistry is lithium sulfur (Li-S). Lithium sulfur cells offer significantly higher energy density (amount of deliverable energy per unit volume) and lower cost than current metal oxide cathode chemistries. However, most Li-S batteries have trouble maintaining their superiority beyond just a few recharge cycles. The key issue of Li–S batteries is the polysulfide "shuttle" effect that is responsible for the progressive leakage of active material from the cathode resulting in low cycle life of the battery. Rensselaer inventors created an approach consisting of a high-quality graphene oxide (GO) coating solution injected into a standard, commercially available ink jet cartridge and “printed” on the Celgard membrane rolls via a standard commercial ink jet printer. The GO/Celgard membrane has been fabricated and extensively analyzed at RPI via SEM photography of the printed coatings, and through a sequence of polysulfide permeation tests. The results proved the integrity and uniformity of the coating, and effectiveness of the polysulfide blocking capability. Additionally, initial cycling performance data (20 charge / discharge cycles) was collected on Li-S batteries with the uncoated Celgard separator, and the proposed GO/Celgard membrane. The coated membrane exhibited significantly higher initial discharge capacity, and superior cell cycling capability.