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Non-flammable electrolyte enables Li-metal batteries with aggressive cathode chemistries

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 715–722 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Rechargeable Li-metal batteries using high-voltage cathodes can deliver the highest possible energy densities among all electrochemistries. However, the notorious reactivity of metallic lithium as well as the catalytic nature of high-voltage cathode materials largely prevents their practical application. Here, we report a non-flammable fluorinated electrolyte that supports the most aggressive and high-voltage cathodes in a Li-metal battery. Our battery shows high cycling stability, as evidenced by the efficiencies for Li-metal plating/stripping (99.2%) for a 5 V cathode LiCoPO4 (~99.81%) and a Ni-rich LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 cathode (~99.93%). At a loading of 2.0 mAh cm−2, our full cells retain ~93% of their original capacities after 1,000 cycles. Surface analyses and quantum chemistry calculations show that stabilization of these aggressive chemistries at extreme potentials is due to the formation of a several-nanometre-thick fluorinated interphase.

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Fig. 1: Electrochemical properties for different electrolytes.
Fig. 2: Scanning electron microscopy of Li-metal morphology after 100 cycles in different electrolytes at a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2.
Fig. 3: Electrochemical performances of LMBs using NMC811 and LCP as cathode materials.
Fig. 4: Electrochemical performance of Li||NMC811 batteries (with onefold Li excess) using 1 M LiPF6 FEC/FEMC/HFE electrolyte.
Fig. 5: Calculated reduction/oxidation stability of electrolyte solvents and surface analyses performed on cycled Li-metal anode and LCP cathodes.
Fig. 6: Reactivity of EC, FEC, FEMC and HFE solvents at the fully charged CoPO4 (010) surface from PBE + U DFT calculations.

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Change history

  • 04 October 2018

    In the version of this Article originally published, in the first paragraph of the Methods, HFE was incorrectly given as 2,2,2-Trifluoroethyl-3ʹ,3ʹ,3ʹ,2ʹ,2ʹ-pentafluoropropyl ether; it should have been 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethyl-2ʹ,2ʹ,2ʹ-trifluoroethyl ether. This has now been corrected in the online versions of the Article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) under award no. DEEE0008202 and DEEE0008200. The support of the Maryland NanoCenter and its AIM Lab is acknowledged. The authors thank K. Pupek and G. Krumdick for providing one of the fluorinated solvents, and B. Dunn for constructive discussions.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiulin Fan, Long Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Xiulin Fan, Long Chen, Xiao Ji, Ji Chen, Singyuk Hou, Tao Deng, Jing Zheng, Chongyin Yang & Chunsheng Wang

  2. Electrochemistry Branch, Power and Energy Division Sensor and Electron Devices Directorate, US Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, USA

    Oleg Borodin & Kang Xu

  3. Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Sz-Chian Liou

  4. Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA

    Khalil Amine

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  1. Xiulin Fan
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Contributions

X.F. and L.C designed the experiments and analysed data. O.B. conducted the calculations. X.F., L.C., X.J., J.C., S.H., T.D., J.Z. and C.Y. conducted electrochemical experiments. X.F. and S.-C.L. performed the TEM analysis. K.A., K.X. and C.W. conceived and supervised the project. All authors contributed to interpretation of the results.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Khalil Amine, Kang Xu or Chunsheng Wang.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–39; Supplementary Tables 1–3; Supplementary Notes 1–2

Supplementary Video 1

Flammable test for the electrolyte of 1 M LiFSI-DME

Supplementary Video 2

Flammable test for the electrolyte of 1 M LiPF6-EC/DMC

Supplementary Video 3

Flammable test for the electrolyte of 1 M LiPF6-FEC/DMC

Supplementary Video 4

Flammable test for the electrolyte of 1 M LiPF6-FEC/FEMC/HFE

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Fan, X., Chen, L., Borodin, O. et al. Non-flammable electrolyte enables Li-metal batteries with aggressive cathode chemistries. Nature Nanotech 13, 715–722 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0183-2

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