Citation

Fan X, Chen L, Borodin O, Ji X, Chen J, Hou S, Deng T, Zheng J, Yang C, Liou SC, Amine K, Xu K, Wang C. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2018; 13(8): 715-722.

Affiliation

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. cswang@umd.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/s41565-018-0183-2

PMID

30013215

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 LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂ 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.

Language: en