Reversible Electrochemical Interface of Mg Metal and Conventional Electrolyte Enabled by Intermediate Adsorption
- Energy & Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States
- Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States
- Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
- Energy & Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
- Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States
- Material, Physical, and Chemical Sciences, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, United States; Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Lemont Illinois 60439, United States
Conventional electrolytes made by mixing simple Mg2+ salts and aprotic solvents, analogous to those in Li-ion batteries, are incompatible with Mg anodes because Mg metal readily reacts with such electrolytes, producing a passivation layer that blocks Mg2+ transport. In this paper, we report that, through tuning a conventional electrolyte—Mg(TFSI)2 (TFSI– is N(SO2CF3)2–)—with an Mg(BH4)2 cosalt, highly reversible Mg plating/stripping with a high Coulombic efficiency is achieved by neutralizing the first solvation shell of Mg cationic clusters between Mg2+ and TFSI– and enhanced reductive stability of free TFSI–. A critical adsorption step between Mg0 atoms and active Mg cation clusters involving BH4– anions is identified to be the key enabler for reversible Mg plating/stripping through analysis of the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) from operando electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), operando electrochemical X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000; AC05-76RL01830; AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1638713
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1639082
OSTI ID: 1780735
OSTI ID: 1595940
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-144809
- Journal Information:
- ACS Energy Letters, Journal Name: ACS Energy Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 5; ISSN 2380-8195
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English