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A non-nucleophilic gel polymer magnesium electrolyte compatible with sulfur cathode

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Abstract

Magnesium/sulfur battery (Mg/S) has recently received wide attention due to its high theoretical energy density (3,260 Wh/L) and low cost. To further improve its safety and flexibility, developing a polymer electrolyte that can be compatible with both electrophilic S and Mg is critical. Here, we report a magnesium chloride-(fluorinated tetraethylene glycolic)borate (MgCl-FTGB) based non-nucleophilic, gel-type polymer electrolyte for Mg/S battery via a facile synthetic method through commercially available reagents. This electrolyte coupled with glass fiber allows reversible Mg deposition/dissolution (100% coulombic efficiency) with low polarization (500 µA/cm2, 300/300 mV), and shows a wide electrochemical window of 4.8 V (vs. Mg/Mg2+). Mg/S battery assembled with this electrolyte can cycle over 50 times with a high specific discharge capacity retention of over 1,100 mAh/g.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21433013 and NSFCU1832218), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0100100), the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. 121E32KYSB20150004), the CAS-Queensland Collaborative Science Fund (No. 121E32KYSB20160032) and the Users with Excellence Project of Heifei Science Center CAS (No. 2018HSC-UE005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Haiyan Fan & Min Wang

  2. i-Lab, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Haiyan Fan, Min Wang & Yuegang Zhang

  3. Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yuxing Zhao, Jianhua Xiao, Jifang Zhang & Yuegang Zhang

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  1. Haiyan Fan
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  3. Jianhua Xiao
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Correspondence to Yuegang Zhang.

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Fan, H., Zhao, Y., Xiao, J. et al. A non-nucleophilic gel polymer magnesium electrolyte compatible with sulfur cathode. Nano Res. 13, 2749–2754 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2923-5

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