A high-performance potassium metal battery using safe ionic liquid electrolyte.

Sun, Hao; Liang, Peng; Zhu, Guanzhou; Hung, Wei Hsuan; Li, Yuan-Yao; Tai, Hung-Chun; Huang, Cheng-Liang; Li, Jiachen et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Potassium secondary batteries are contenders of next-generation energy storage devices owing to the much higher abundance of potassium than lithium. However, safety issues and poor cycle life of K metal battery have been key bottlenecks. Here we report an ionic liquid electrolyte comprising 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride/AlCl<sub>3</sub>/KCl/potassium bis(fluorosulfonyl) imide for safe and high-performance batteries. The electrolyte is nonflammable and exhibits a high ionic conductivity of 13.1 mS cm<sup>-1</sup> at room temperature. A 3.6-V battery with K anode and Prussian blue/reduced graphene oxide cathode delivers a high energy and power density of 381 and 1,350 W kg<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. The battery shows an excellent cycling stability over 820 cycles, retaining ∼89% of the original capacity with high Coulombic efficiencies of ∼99.9%. High cyclability is also achieved at elevated temperatures up to 60 °C. Uniquely, robust K, Al, F, and Cl-containing passivating interphases are afforded with this electrolyte, which is key to superior battery cycling performances.