Stabilizing lithium metal anode by octaphenyl polyoxyethylene-lithium complexation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32005850.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14505-8 and PMC identifier 6994683.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Lithium metal is an ideal anode for lithium batteries due to its low electrochemical potential and high theoretical capacity. However, safety issues arising from lithium dendrite growth have significantly reduced the practical applicability of lithium metal batteries. Here, we report the addition of octaphenyl polyoxyethylene as an electrolyte additive to enable a stable complex layer on the surface of the lithium anode. This surface layer not only promotes uniform lithium deposition, but also facilitates the formation of a robust solid-electrolyte interface film comprising cross-linked polymer. As a result, lithium|lithium symmetric cells constructed using the octaphenyl polyoxyethylene additive exhibit excellent cycling stability over 400 cycles at 1 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>, and outstanding rate performance up to 4 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. Full cells assembled with a LiFePO<sub>4</sub> cathode exhibit high rate capability and impressive cyclability, with capacity decay of only 0.023% per cycle.