Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Efaw, Corey M
• Wu, Qisheng
• Gao, Ningshengjie
• Zhang, Yugang
• Zhu, Haoyu
• Gering, Kevin
• Hurley, Michael F
• Xiong, Hui
• Hu, Enyuan
• Cao, Xia
• Xu, Wu
• Zhang, Ji-Guang
• Dufek, Eric J
• Xiao, Jie
• Yang, Xiao-Qing
• Liu, Jun
• Qi, Yue
• Li, Bin

Titel

Localized high-concentration electrolytes get more localized through micelle-like structures

Ist Teil von

• Nature materials, 2023-12, Vol.22 (12), p.1531-1539

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Springer Nature - Connect here FIRST to enable access

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Liquid electrolytes in batteries are typically treated as macroscopically homogeneous ionic transport media despite having a complex chemical composition and atomistic solvation structures, leaving a knowledge gap of the microstructural characteristics. Here, we reveal a unique micelle-like structure in a localized high-concentration electrolyte, in which the solvent acts as a surfactant between an insoluble salt in a diluent. The miscibility of the solvent with the diluent and simultaneous solubility of the salt results in a micelle-like structure with a smeared interface and an increased salt concentration at the centre of the salt-solvent clusters that extends the salt solubility. These intermingling miscibility effects have temperature dependencies, wherein a typical localized high-concentration electrolyte peaks in localized cluster salt concentration near room temperature and is used to form a stable solid-electrolyte interphase on a Li metal anode. These findings serve as a guide to predicting a stable ternary phase diagram and connecting the electrolyte microstructure with electrolyte formulation and formation protocols of solid-electrolyte interphases for enhanced battery cyclability.