Issue 5, 2023

High-safety and high-efficiency electrolyte design for 4.6 V-class lithium-ion batteries with a non-solvating flame-retardant

Abstract

Nonflammable electrolytes are critical for the safe operation of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Although organic phosphates are effective flame retardants, their poor electrochemical stability with a graphite (Gr) anode and Ni-rich cathodes would lead to the deterioration of electrode materials and fast capacity decay. Herein, we develop a safe and high-performance electrolyte formulation for high-voltage (4.6 V-class) LIBs using flame-retarding ethoxy(pentafluoro) cyclotriphosphazene (PFPN) as a non-solvating diluent for the high-concentration carbonate–ether hybrid electrolyte. In contrast to conventional nonflammable additives with restricted dosage, the high level of PFPN (69% mass ratio in our electrolyte design) could significantly increase the electrolyte flash point and protect the favored anion-rich inner solvation sheath because of its non-solvating feature, thus preventing solvent co-intercalation and structural damage to the Gr anode. The nonflammable electrolyte could also form a stable LiF-rich cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI), which enables superior electrochemical performances of Gr‖LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811) full cells at high voltages (∼82.0% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 4.5 V; 89.8% after 300 cycles at 4.6 V) and high temperatures (50 °C). This work sheds light on the electrolyte design and interphase engineering for developing practical safe high-energy-density LIBs.

Graphical abstract: High-safety and high-efficiency electrolyte design for 4.6 V-class lithium-ion batteries with a non-solvating flame-retardant

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
14 Oct 2022
Accepted
28 Dec 2022
First published
28 Dec 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 1184-1193

High-safety and high-efficiency electrolyte design for 4.6 V-class lithium-ion batteries with a non-solvating flame-retardant

L. Chen, Q. Nian, D. Ruan, J. Fan, Y. Li, S. Chen, L. Tan, X. Luo, Z. Cui, Y. Cheng, C. Li and X. Ren, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 1184 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC05723A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements