Disclosed is an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery. The electrolyte includes a non-aqueous solvent and a sulfone based organic compound represented by the following Formulae (I), (II), or (III), or a mixture thereof: where R and R′ are independently selected from the group consisting of primary alkyl groups, secondary alkyl groups, tertiary alkyl groups, alkenyl groups, aryl groups; halogen substituted primary alkyl groups, halogen substituted secondary alkyl groups, halogen substituted tertiary alkyl groups, halogen substituted alkenyl groups, and halogen substituted aryl groups, and n is from 0 to 3.