The lithium/sulfur (Li/S) battery is a promising electrochemical system that has a high theoretical capacity of 1675 mAh g(-1). However, the system suffers from several drawbacks: poor active material conductivity, active material dissolution, and use of the highly reactive lithium metal electrode. In this study, we investigated the electrolyte effects on electrochemical performances of the Li/S cell, by acting on the solvent composition. As conventional carbonate-based electrolytes turned out to be unusable in Li/S cells, alternative ether solvents had to be considered. Different kinds of solvent structures were investigated by changing the ether/alkyl moieties ratio to vary the lithium polysulfide solubility. This allowed to point out the importance of the solvent solvation ability on the discharge capacity. As the end of discharge is linked to the positive electrode passivation, an electrolyte having high salvation ability reduces the polysulfide precipitation and delays the positive electrode passivation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.