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Stable cycling of practical high-voltage LiCoO2 pouch cell via electrolyte modification

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Abstract

Nitriles as efficient electrolyte additives are widely used in high-voltage lithium-ion batteries. However, their working mechanisms are still mysterious, especially in practical high-voltage LiCoO2 pouch lithium-ion batteries. Herein, we adopt a tridentate ligand-containing 1,3,6-hexanetricarbonitrile (HTCN) as an effective electrolyte additive to shed light on the mechanism of stabilizing high-voltage LiCoO2 cathode (4.5 V) through nitriles. The LiCoO2/graphite pouch cells with the HTCN additive electrolyte possess superior cycling performance, 90% retention of the initial capacity after 800 cycles at 25 °C, and 72% retention after 500 cycles at 45 °C, which is feasible for practical application. Such an excellent cycling performance can be attributed to the stable interface: The HTCN molecules with strong electron-donating ability participate in the construction of cathode-electrolyte interphase (CEI) through coordinating with Co ions, which suppresses the decomposition of electrolyte and improves the structural stability of LiCoO2 during cycling. In summary, the work recognizes a coordinating-based interphase-forming mechanism as an effective strategy to optimize the performance of high voltage LiCoO2 cathode with appropriate electrolyte additives for practical pouch batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2017YFA0206700 and 2017YFA0402802), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21776265 and 51902304), and Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1908085ME122).

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Author notes

  1. Chao Tang, Yawei Chen, and Zhengfeng Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Chao Tang, Yawei Chen, Yulin Jie, Fanyang Huang, Yehu Han, Wanxia Li, Fuping Ai, Ruiguo Cao & Shuhong Jiao

  2. Ningde Amperex Technology limited (ATL), Ningde, 352100, China

    Chao Tang, Wenqiang Li, Junhua Jian & Yuhao Lu

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Microstructure and Properties of Solids, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Zhengfeng Zhang & Pengfei Yan

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  1. Chao Tang
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Correspondence to Pengfei Yan, Yuhao Lu or Shuhong Jiao.

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Tang, C., Chen, Y., Zhang, Z. et al. Stable cycling of practical high-voltage LiCoO2 pouch cell via electrolyte modification. Nano Res. 16, 3864–3871 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4955-5

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