There is a need for exploring new battery chemistries demonstrating higher energy density than currently used Li-ion systems. The recent development of sulfur cathodes, with theoretical capacities of similar to 1675 mAh/g in lithium based batteries therefore bears great relevance in designing the next generation mobile lithium based battery systems. Although promising, sulfur cathodes are hamstrung by a number of problems including but not limited to inherent electronic conductivity limitations, volumetric expansion and soluble polysulfide formation resulting in poor rate capabilities, poor areal capacity and poor cyclability. In this work, we implement a three-pronged strategy to overcome the issues stated above. Using a simple chemical procedure, we have successfully synthesized sulfur nanoparticles that display capacities up to similar to 1100 mAh/g. We have also demonstrated high areal capacities in thick electrodes prepared by solid-state processing exhibiting good capacity retention as a result of the same. Finally, we have successfully demonstrated the use of thin lithium ion conductive coatings (LIC) on sulfur to demonstrate significant improvement in capacity fade. The thick electrodes coated with a thin lithium ion conducting coating that we use in this study allow us to obtain very high areal capacities (of similar to 5 mAh/cm(2)) in contrast to hitherto published reports. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.