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A LiA1Cl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary inorganic electrolyte with improved electrochemical performance for Li-metal batteries

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Abstract

A LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary inorganic electrolyte was prepared by using NaAlCl4·2SO2 as the functional additive and mixing with LiAlCl4·3SO2. The obtained LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 not only has good non-flammability but also exhibits improved electrochemical performance for Li-metal batteries. With the addition of NaAlCl4·2SO2, the fabricated Li/Cu cells using mixed inorganic electrolyte display higher average coulombic efficiency and more excellent cycling stability. Through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization, it is demonstrated that the surficial morphology of Li-deposited layer is smoother in LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary electrolyte system than pure LiAlCl4·3SO2. Furthermore, the fabricated Li/graphite cells using LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary electrolyte also show higher specific capacity and better cycling stability than using pure LiAlCl4·3SO2 electrolyte as well as the conventional organic electrolyte (1 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate mixed solvent with 1:1 in volume). Consequently, LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 is proposed to have great potential for the safe and high-performance Li-metal batteries.

A LiAlCl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary inorganic electrolyte is prepared by using NaAlCl4·2SO2 as the functional additive and mixing with LiAlCl4·3SO2, which exhibits improved electrochemical performance for Li-metal batteries

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Acknowledgements

National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51874110 and 51604089), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2016M601431 and 2018T110308), and the Heilongjiang Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. LBH-Z16056 and LBH-TZ1707) are acknowledged.

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  1. MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Ruopeng Li, Bo Wang, Tiantian Gao, Changyuan Bao, Rensheng Song & Dianlong Wang

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  1. Ruopeng Li
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Correspondence to Bo Wang or Dianlong Wang.

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Li, R., Wang, B., Gao, T. et al. A LiA1Cl4·3SO2-NaAlCl4·2SO2 binary inorganic electrolyte with improved electrochemical performance for Li-metal batteries. Ionics 25, 4751–4760 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-019-03032-2

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