Stable lithium-ion batteries based on a hybrid aqueous/organic electrolyte
Journal article, 2024
Moving from organic to aqueous lithium-ion batteries (ALIBs) would be an interesting feat. As of today, we have water-in-salt electrolytes (WISEs) that were developed primarily to expand the electrochemical stability window of traditional aqueous electrolytes. However, their cathodic limits do not enable the use of high-capacity negative electrodes and the very high concentrations of expensive heavily fluorinated salts, often >20 mol kg−1, hinder any feasible implementation of LIBs based on WISEs. A hybrid organic/aqueous electrolyte based on LiFTFSI dissolved in sulfolane and water is here presented as an alternative, where sulfolane is used to tune and reduce the water activity, by altering the Li+ cation first solvation shell, and thereby the cathodic limit can be pushed to <1.0 V vs. Li+/Li even at a comparatively moderate salt concentration (7.8 mol kg−1). This enables long-term operation of an Li4Ti5O12⎪hybrid electrolyte⎪LiMn2O4 2.4 V cell with a specific energy of 156 Wh kgAM−1.
Hybrid electrolytes
LiFTFSI
Water in salt
Solvation structure
Sulfolane
Author
Shahid Khalid
University of Milano-Bicocca
Ivan Claudio Pellini
University of Milano-Bicocca
Nicolò Pianta
University of Milano-Bicocca
Roberto Lorenzi
University of Milano-Bicocca
Silvia Leonardi
ENI S.p.A., Italy
Laura Meda
ENI S.p.A., Italy
Caterina Rizzo
ENI S.p.A., Italy
Ernesto Roccaro
ENI S.p.A., Italy
Patrik Johansson
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
Alistore - European Research Institute
Piercarlo Mustarelli
National Reference Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage (GISEL)
University of Milano-Bicocca
Riccardo Ruffo
University of Milano-Bicocca
National Reference Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage (GISEL)
Journal of Power Sources
0378-7753 (ISSN)
Vol. 612 234803Subject Categories
Materials Chemistry
Computer Science
DOI
10.1016/j.jpowsour.2024.234803