Electrolyte design for Li metal-free Li batteries
Abstract
Li metal, with the lowest thermodynamically achievable negative electrochemical potential and the highest specific capacity (3860 mAh g-1), is the ultimate anode choice for Li batteries. However, the highest reported Li plating/stripping Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.5% after extensive efforts is still too low for the Li metal-free (all the Li metal in cycling comes from cathode, without anode pre-lithiation) Li metal batteries. The low CE is attributed to both non-uniform Li plating/stripping on the lithiophobic Cu current collector and Li dendrite growth through lithiophilic organic–inorganic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed in carbonate electrolytes. Here, we use a lithiophilic Bismuth graphite blend (Bi–Gr) substrate to replace lithiophobic Cu current collector to seed a uniform Li nucleation, and form a lithiophobic LiF-rich SEI rather than lithiophilic organic-rich SEI to suppress Li dendrite growth. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the preferential reduction of anions in 2.0 M LiPF6 in tetrahydrofuran/2-methyl tetrahydrofuran (2.0 M LiPF6–mixTHF) electrolyte to generate LiF-rich SEI on plated Li. Bi–Gr substrate and 2.0 M LiPF6–mixTHF electrolyte enable the Li anodes to achieve a record high CE of 99.83% at a high capacity of 1.0 mAh cm-2 and current of 0.5 mA cm-2. The Bi particles serve as dispersed nucleation centersmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Army Research Lab., Adelphi, MD (United States). U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate. Energy and Biomaterials Division. Battery Science Branch
- Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1848707
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1690298
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0008202
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Materials Today
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 39; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1369-7021
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Materials Science; Li metal; Electrolyte Design; Nucleation Design; Coulombic Efficiency; Density Functional Theory
Citation Formats
Chen, Ji, Li, Qin, Pollard, Travis P., Fan, Xiulin, Borodin, Oleg, and Wang, Chunsheng. Electrolyte design for Li metal-free Li batteries. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.mattod.2020.04.004.
Chen, Ji, Li, Qin, Pollard, Travis P., Fan, Xiulin, Borodin, Oleg, & Wang, Chunsheng. Electrolyte design for Li metal-free Li batteries. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2020.04.004
Chen, Ji, Li, Qin, Pollard, Travis P., Fan, Xiulin, Borodin, Oleg, and Wang, Chunsheng. Sat .
"Electrolyte design for Li metal-free Li batteries". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2020.04.004. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1848707.
@article{osti_1848707,
title = {Electrolyte design for Li metal-free Li batteries},
author = {Chen, Ji and Li, Qin and Pollard, Travis P. and Fan, Xiulin and Borodin, Oleg and Wang, Chunsheng},
abstractNote = {Li metal, with the lowest thermodynamically achievable negative electrochemical potential and the highest specific capacity (3860 mAh g-1), is the ultimate anode choice for Li batteries. However, the highest reported Li plating/stripping Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.5% after extensive efforts is still too low for the Li metal-free (all the Li metal in cycling comes from cathode, without anode pre-lithiation) Li metal batteries. The low CE is attributed to both non-uniform Li plating/stripping on the lithiophobic Cu current collector and Li dendrite growth through lithiophilic organic–inorganic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formed in carbonate electrolytes. Here, we use a lithiophilic Bismuth graphite blend (Bi–Gr) substrate to replace lithiophobic Cu current collector to seed a uniform Li nucleation, and form a lithiophobic LiF-rich SEI rather than lithiophilic organic-rich SEI to suppress Li dendrite growth. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the preferential reduction of anions in 2.0 M LiPF6 in tetrahydrofuran/2-methyl tetrahydrofuran (2.0 M LiPF6–mixTHF) electrolyte to generate LiF-rich SEI on plated Li. Bi–Gr substrate and 2.0 M LiPF6–mixTHF electrolyte enable the Li anodes to achieve a record high CE of 99.83% at a high capacity of 1.0 mAh cm-2 and current of 0.5 mA cm-2. The Bi particles serve as dispersed nucleation centers that promote uniform Li deposition with strong adhesion to the substrate to avoid dead Li, while the lithiophobic LiF-rich SEI promotes lateral Li growth and suppresses the vertical Li dendrite growth even at a high current density of 3.0 mA cm-2 and high areal capacities of 3.0 mAh cm-2. The regulation of Li nucleation and growth enables the Li metal-free LiFePO4 full cells to achieve 100 cycles at a practical areal capacity of >2.0 mAh cm-2. This article highlights the benefits of simultaneous substrate design to improve Li nucleation and electrolyte design to promote lithiophobic SEI growth, enabling a promising and practical route Li metal-free Li metal batteries.},
doi = {10.1016/j.mattod.2020.04.004},
journal = {Materials Today},
number = C,
volume = 39,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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