Entropy-Driven Liquid Electrolytes for Lithium Batteries

Qidi Wang, Chenglong Zhao*, Zhenpeng Yao, Jianlin Wang, Fangting Wu, Sai Govind Hari Kumar, Swapna Ganapathy, Stephen Eustace, Marnix Wagemaker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)
113 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Developing liquid electrolytes with higher kinetics and enhanced interphase stability is one of the key challenges for lithium batteries. However, the poor solubility of lithium salts in solvents sets constraints that compromises the electrolyte properties. Here, it is shown that introducing multiple salts to form a high-entropy solution, alters the solvation structure, which can be used to raise the solubility of specific salts and stabilize electrode–electrolyte interphases. The prepared high-entropy electrolytes significantly enhance the cycling and rate performance of lithium batteries. For lithium-metal anodes the reversibility exceeds 99%, which extends the cycle life of batteries even under aggressive cycling conditions. For commercial batteries, combining a graphite anode with a LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode, more than 1000 charge–discharge cycles are achieved while maintaining a capacity retention of more than 90%. These performance improvements with respect to regular electrolytes are rationalized by the unique features of the solvation structure in high-entropy electrolytes. The weaker solvation interaction induced by the higher disorder results in improved lithium-ion kinetics, and the altered solvation composition leads to stabilized interphases. Finally, the high-entropy, induced by the presence of multiple salts, enables a decrease in melting temperature of the electrolytes and thus enables lower battery operation temperatures without changing the solvents.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume35
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • entropy-driven electrolytes
  • high-entropy electrolytes
  • lithium batteries
  • temperature-dependent electrolytes
  • weak solvation structures

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