High-dielectric solvents were explored for enhancing the sulfur utilization in lithium-sulfur (LiÀS) batteries,b ut their applications have been impeded by lows tability at the lithium metal anode.N ow ar adical-directed, lithium-compatible,and strongly polysulfide-solvating high-dielectric electrolyte based on tetramethylurea is presented. Over 200 hours of cycling was realized in Li j Li symmetric cells,s howing good compatibility of the tetramethylurea-based electrolyte with lithium metal. The high solubility of short-chain polysulfides, as well as the presence of active S 3 C À radicals,e nabled pouch cells to deliver ad ischarge capacity of 1524 mAh g À1 and an energy density of 324 Wh kg À1 .T his finding suggests an alternative recipe to ether-based electrolytes for Li À Sbatteries.The rapidly growing global demand for energy appeals for advanced energy storage systems beyond current lithium-ion batteries.T he lithium metal anode is regarded as the cornerstone of next-generation secondary batteries. [1] To fully exert the virtue of high-capacity lithium anode,h igh-capacity cathode materials like sulfur are strongly preferred. Benefiting from the multi-electron conversion reactions,t he sulfur cathode delivers at heoretical capacity of 1675 mAh g À1 ,a nd endows lithium-sulfur (LiÀS) batteries with ar emarkable energy density up to 2600 Wh kg À1 ,f ar exceeding the theoretical limits of lithium-ion batteries. [2] Substantial efforts have been dedicated in the past decade to addressing the issues of LiÀSb atteries,s uch as the insulating sulfur compounds and the shuttle effect. [3] Despite these efforts,t here is still ah uge gap between the practical energy density and the theoretical value,o wing to 1) low sulfur utilization, 2) undesirable sulfur content, 3) low areal loading of sulfur,4)large excess of lithium anode,and 5) large electrolyte-to-sulfur mass ratio (E/S ratio). [4] Among them, E/ Sr atio and sulfur utilization have the most significant implications on energy density (Supporting Information, Figure S1). [5] Nevertheless,l ow E/S ratio is always counterbalanced by the simultaneous decline of sulfur utilization in conventional ether-based electrolytes.Therefore,understanding the interplay between electrolyte and sulfur species and further rationalizing the electrolyte recipe appears to be crucial and urgent to close the gap.Thecounterbalance between low E/S ratio and high sulfur utilization is essentially associated with the solvation of sulfur species in electrolytes.O wing to the medium polarity (a dielectric constant, e,ofaround 7at258 8C), the most common dimethoxyethane (DME)/dioxolane (DOL) electrolyte only allows moderate solvation of polysulfides,always resulting in cathode passivation via the early precipitation of lowsolubility short-chain polysulfides (Li 2 S n , n 4; Supporting Information, Figure S2a). [6] To circumvent this dilemma, one approach is to decouple the reaction of elemental sulfur from polysulfide dissolution through non/sparsely polysulfide-solvating electrolytes (Su...