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In situ fluorinated solid electrolyte interphase towards long-life lithium metal anodes

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Abstract

The urgent demands for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries promote a flourishing development of Li metal anode. However, the uncontrollable dendrites growth and serious side reactions severely limit its commercial application. Herein, an artificial LiF-rich solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is constructed at molecular-level using one-step photopolymerization of hexafluorobutyl acrylate based solution, where the LiF is in situ generated during photopolymerization process (denoted as PHALF). The LiF-rich layer comprised flexible polymer matrix and inorganic LiF filler not only ensures intimate contact with Li anode and adapts volume fluctuations during cycling but also regulates Li deposition behavior, enabling it to suppress the dendrite growth and block side reactions between the electrolyte and Li metal. Accordingly, the PHALF-Li anode presents superior stable cycling performance over 500 h at 1 mA·cm−2 for 1 mA·h·cm−2 without dendrites growth in carbonate electrolyte. The work provides a novel approach to design and build in situ artificial SEI layer for high-safety and stable Li metal anodes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Science Center Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51788104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21773264, 21805062, 21703257, 21603011), the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2016YFA0202500 and 2018YFB0104300), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. L172023) and the “Transformational Technologies for Clean Energy and Demonstration”, Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA 21070300), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2019033), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2018JBM067). We thank Dr. Z. J. Z., Dr. X. Y. Z. and Dr. Y. S. at the Center for Analysis and Testing, ICCAS for their help for the XPS and XRD analysis.

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  1. Shan-Min Xu and Hui Duan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Shan-Min Xu, Yu-Guo Yang & Qing-Hua Kong

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMs), Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100190, China

    Shan-Min Xu, Hui Duan, Ji-Lei Shi, Tong-Tong Zuo, Xin-Cheng Hu, Shuang-Yan Lang, Min Yan, Jia-Yan Liang, Xing Zhang & Yu-Guo Guo

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hui Duan, Ji-Lei Shi, Tong-Tong Zuo, Xin-Cheng Hu, Shuang-Yan Lang, Jia-Yan Liang, Xing Zhang & Yu-Guo Guo

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  1. Shan-Min Xu
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Correspondence to Qing-Hua Kong, Xing Zhang or Yu-Guo Guo.

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Xu, SM., Duan, H., Shi, JL. et al. In situ fluorinated solid electrolyte interphase towards long-life lithium metal anodes. Nano Res. 13, 430–436 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2625-z

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