Concentrated electrolytes: decrypting electrolyte properties and reassessing Al corrosion mechanisms

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Abstract

Highly concentrated electrolytes containing carbonate solvents with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) have been investigated to determine the influence of eliminating bulk solvent (i.e., uncoordinated to a Li+ cation) on electrolyte properties. The phase behavior of ethylene carbonate (EC)–LiTFSI mixtures indicates that two crystalline solvates form—(EC)3:LiTFSI and (EC)1:LiTFSI. Crystal structures for these were determined to obtain insight into the ion and solvent coordination. Between these compositions, however, a crystallinity gap exists. A Raman spectroscopic analysis of the EC solvent bands for the 3–1 and 2–1 EC–LiTFSI liquid electrolytes indicates that ∼86 and 95%, respectively, of the solvent is coordinated to the Li+ cations. This extensive coordination results in significantly improved anodic oxidation and thermal stabilities as compared with more dilute (i.e., 1 M) electrolytes. Further, while dilute EC–LiTFSI electrolytes extensively corrode the Al current collector at high potential, the concentrated electrolytes do not. A new mechanism for electrolyte corrosion of Al in Li-ion batteries is proposed to explain this. Although the ionic conductivity of concentrated EC–LiTFSI electrolytes is somewhat low relative to the current state-of-the-art electrolyte formulations used in commercial Li-ion batteries, using an EC–diethyl carbonate (DEC) mixed solvent instead of pure EC markedly improves the conductivity.

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