FT-Raman spectroscopy study of solvent-in-salt electrolytes

Cation–anion interaction with different ratios of salt to solvent is investigated by FT-Raman spectroscopy. The fitting result of the C–N–C bending vibration manifests that the cation–anion coordination structure changes tremendously with the variation of salt concentration. It is well known that lithium-ion transport in ultrahigh salt concentration electrolyte is dramatically different from that in dilute electrolyte, due to high viscosity and strong cation–anion interaction. In ultrahigh salt concentrated "solvent-in-salt" electrolyte(SIS-7#), we found, on one hand, that the cation and anion in the solution mainly formed cation–anion pairs with a high Li~+coordination number(≥ 1), including intimate ion pairs(20.1%) and aggregated ion pairs(79.9%), which not only cause low total ionic conductivity but also cause a high lithium transference number(0.73). A possible lithium transport mechanism is proposed: in solvent-in-salt electrolytes, lithium ions' direct movement presumably depends on Li-ion exchange between aggregated ion pairs and solvent molecules, which repeats a dissolving and re-complexing process between different oxygen groups of solvent molecules.     

Concentrated dual-salt electrolytes for improving the cycling stability of lithium metal anodes

Lithium(Li) metal is an ideal anode material for rechargeable Li batteries, due to its high theoretical specific capacity(3860 mAh/g), low density(0.534 g/cm~3), and low negative electrochemical potential(-3.040 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode). In this work, the concentrated electrolytes with dual salts, composed of Li[N(SO_2F)_2](Li FSI) and Li[N(SO_2CF_3)_2](Li TFSI) were studied. In this dual-salt system, the capacity retention can even be maintained at 95.7%after 100 cycles in Li|Li FePO_4 cells. A Li|Li cell can be cycled at 0.5 mA/cm~2 for more than 600 h, and a Li|Cu cell can be cycled at 0.5 m A/cm~2 for more than 200 cycles with a high average Coulombi efficiency of 99%. These results show that the concentrated dual-salt electrolytes exhibit superior electrochemical performance and would be a promising candidate for application in rechargeable Li batteries.