IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v614y2023i7949d10.1038_s41586-022-05627-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Electrolyte design for Li-ion batteries under extreme operating conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Jijian Xu

    (University of Maryland)

  • Jiaxun Zhang

    (University of Maryland)

  • Travis P. Pollard

    (US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory)

  • Qingdong Li

    (The State University of New Jersey)

  • Sha Tan

    (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

  • Singyuk Hou

    (University of Maryland)

  • Hongli Wan

    (University of Maryland)

  • Fu Chen

    (University of Maryland)

  • Huixin He

    (The State University of New Jersey)

  • Enyuan Hu

    (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

  • Kang Xu

    (US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory)

  • Xiao-Qing Yang

    (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

  • Oleg Borodin

    (US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory)

  • Chunsheng Wang

    (University of Maryland)

Abstract

The ideal electrolyte for the widely used LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811)||graphite lithium-ion batteries is expected to have the capability of supporting higher voltages (≥4.5 volts), fast charging (≤15 minutes), charging/discharging over a wide temperature range (±60 degrees Celsius) without lithium plating, and non-flammability1–4. No existing electrolyte simultaneously meets all these requirements and electrolyte design is hindered by the absence of an effective guiding principle that addresses the relationships between battery performance, solvation structure and solid-electrolyte-interphase chemistry5. Here we report and validate an electrolyte design strategy based on a group of soft solvents that strikes a balance between weak Li+–solvent interactions, sufficient salt dissociation and desired electrochemistry to fulfil all the aforementioned requirements. Remarkably, the 4.5-volt NMC811||graphite coin cells with areal capacities of more than 2.5 milliampere hours per square centimetre retain 75 per cent (54 per cent) of their room-temperature capacity when these cells are charged and discharged at −50 degrees Celsius (−60 degrees Celsius) at a C rate of 0.1C, and the NMC811||graphite pouch cells with lean electrolyte (2.5 grams per ampere hour) achieve stable cycling with an average Coulombic efficiency of more than 99.9 per cent at −30 degrees Celsius. The comprehensive analysis further reveals an impedance matching between the NMC811 cathode and the graphite anode owing to the formation of similar lithium-fluoride-rich interphases, thus effectively avoiding lithium plating at low temperatures. This electrolyte design principle can be extended to other alkali-metal-ion batteries operating under extreme conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jijian Xu & Jiaxun Zhang & Travis P. Pollard & Qingdong Li & Sha Tan & Singyuk Hou & Hongli Wan & Fu Chen & Huixin He & Enyuan Hu & Kang Xu & Xiao-Qing Yang & Oleg Borodin & Chunsheng Wang, 2023. "Electrolyte design for Li-ion batteries under extreme operating conditions," Nature, Nature, vol. 614(7949), pages 694-700, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:614:y:2023:i:7949:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05627-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05627-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05627-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-022-05627-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuqing Chen & Qiu He & Yun Zhao & Wang Zhou & Peitao Xiao & Peng Gao & Naser Tavajohi & Jian Tu & Baohua Li & Xiangming He & Lidan Xing & Xiulin Fan & Jilei Liu, 2023. "Breaking solvation dominance of ethylene carbonate via molecular charge engineering enables lower temperature battery," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Shang Zhu & Bharath Ramsundar & Emil Annevelink & Hongyi Lin & Adarsh Dave & Pin-Wen Guan & Kevin Gering & Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan, 2024. "Differentiable modeling and optimization of non-aqueous Li-based battery electrolyte solutions using geometric deep learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Hanwen An & Menglu Li & Qingsong Liu & Yajie Song & Jiaxuan Liu & Zhihang Yu & Xingjiang Liu & Biao Deng & Jiajun Wang, 2024. "Strong Lewis-acid coordinated PEO electrolyte achieves 4.8 V-class all-solid-state batteries over 580 Wh kg−1," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Chutao Wang & Zongqiang Sun & Yaqing Liu & Lin Liu & Xiaoting Yin & Qing Hou & Jingmin Fan & Jiawei Yan & Ruming Yuan & Mingsen Zheng & Quanfeng Dong, 2024. "A weakly coordinating-intervention strategy for modulating Na+ solvation sheathes and constructing robust interphase in sodium-metal batteries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Zhenyou Song & Tengrui Wang & Hua Yang & Wang Hay Kan & Yuwei Chen & Qian Yu & Likuo Wang & Yini Zhang & Yiming Dai & Huaican Chen & Wen Yin & Takashi Honda & Maxim Avdeev & Henghui Xu & Jiwei Ma & Yu, 2024. "Promoting high-voltage stability through local lattice distortion of halide solid electrolytes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:614:y:2023:i:7949:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05627-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.