Lithium sulfur batteries have brought significant advancement to the current state-of-art battery technologies due to their high theoretical specific energy of 1675 mAh g(-1). However, the rapid capacity degradation, mainly caused by polysulfide dissolution, remains a significant challenge prior to practical applications. In this work, a sulfur cathode modified by bifunctional nafion/gamma-Al2O3 membrane has been successfully prepared, which can remarkably immobilize the polysulfides within the unique cathode structure due to its ions selectivity and absorbent capacity. A high initial discharge capacity of 1448.0 mAh g(-1) can be achieved at 1C and 788.6 mAh g(-1) preserved after 200 cycles, indicating a slow degradation. Furthermore, the coulombic efficiency maintains as high as 97% during cycling. The excellent electrochemical properties can be attributed to the bifunctional and stable membrane which can dramatically reduce the shuttle effect and keep integrated even after charging-discharging for 200 cycles. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.