1. A smart lithiophilic polymer filler in gel polymer electrolyte enables stable and dendrite-free Li metal anode.
- Author
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Ye, Fei, Zhang, Xiu, Liao, Kaiming, Lu, Qian, Zou, Xiaohong, Ran, Ran, Zhou, Wei, Zhong, Yijun, and Shao, Zongping
- Abstract
The Li-metal anode plays a critical role in meeting the ever-growing demands for high-energy-density batteries. The rational design of an electrolyte to suppress dendrite formation is of great significance for the practical use of a Li-metal anode in rechargeable Li-metal batteries. In this work, by taking advantage of the lithiophilic polyacenequinone polymer filler, a novel polymer-filler-reinforced gel polymer electrolyte with the merits of high mechanical flexibility, high ionic conductivity, and superior dendrite-Li suppressing ability has been developed. When this gel polymer electrolyte is used in Li symmetrical cells, small and stable Li-plating/stripping overpotentials (∼25 mV) can be maintained over 700 hours. When equipped with a high-voltage cathode of LiNi
0.6 Co0.2 Mn0.2 O2 (NCM622) for Li-metal batteries, a high coulombic efficiency of about 99% can be retained after 100 repeated cycles. Such superiority is mainly ascribed to the smart lithiophilic carbonyl groups on the polyacenequinone polymer filler, which can guide uniform Li-ion flux at the Li electrode/electrolyte interface to fundamentally suppress Li dendrite growth during cycling. This work paves a way for designing dendrite-suppressed gel polymer electrolytes for Li-metal batteries and related energy conversion and storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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