Hybrid Polymer-Alloy-Fluoride Interphase Enabling Fast Ion Transport Kinetics for Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries

Hybrid Polymer-Alloy-Fluoride Interphase Enabling Fast Ion Transport Kinetics for Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries

ACS Nano

10.1021/acsnano.3c08576

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c08576

Yuanjian Li, Eryang Mao, Zhiwen Min, Zhao Cai, Zihe Chen, Lin Fu, Xiangrui Duan, Lingyue Wang, Chang Zhang, Ziheng Lu, Wei Liu, Zhi Wei Seh, Yongming Sun

28 September 2023

Li, Y., Mao, E., Min, Z., Cai, Z., Chen, Z., Fu, L., Duan, X., Wang, L., Zhang, C., Lu, Z., Liu, W., Seh, Z. W., & Sun, Y. (2023). Hybrid Polymer-Alloy-Fluoride Interphase Enabling Fast Ion Transport Kinetics for Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries. ACS Nano, 17(19), 19459–19469. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.3c08576

Low-temperature lithium metal batteries are of vital importance for cold-climate condition applications. Their realization, however, is plagued by the extremely sluggish Li+ transport kinetics in the vicinity of Li metal anode at low temperatures. Different from the widely adopted electrolyte engineering, a functional interphase design concept is proposed in this work to efficiently improve the low-temperature electrochemical reaction kinetics of Li metal anodes. As a proof of concept, we design a hybrid polymer-alloy-fluoride (PAF) interphase featuring numerous gradient fluorinated solid-solution alloy composite nanoparticles embedded in a polymerized dioxolane matrix. Systematic experimental and theoretical investigations demonstrate that the hybrid PAF interphase not only exhibits superior lithiophilicity but also provides abundant ionic conductive pathways for homogeneous and fast Li+ transport at the Li–electrolyte interface. With enhanced interfacial dynamics of Li-ion migration, the as-designed PAF-Li anode works stably for 720 h with low voltage hysteresis and dendrite-free electrode morphology in symmetric cell configurations at −40 °C. The full cells with PAF-Li anode display a commercial-grade capacity of 4.26 mAh cm–2 and high capacity retention of 74.7% after 150 cycles at −20 °C. The rational functional interphase design for accelerating ion-transfer kinetics sheds innovative insights for developing high-areal-capacity and long-lifespan lithium metal batteries at low temperatures.

Publisher Copyright

This research / project is supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation - NRF Fellowship
Grant Reference no. : NRF-NRFF2017-04

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Nano, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see 10.1021/acsnano.3c08576.

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23553

1936-0851
1936-086X

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering