Synergy Effect of Trimethyl Borate on Protecting High-Voltage Cathode Materials in Dual-Additive Electrolytes

Qiuyan Liu; Gaojing Yang; Shuwei Li; Simeng Zhang; Renjie Chen; Zhaoxiang Wang; Liquan Chen

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c04389

Synergy Effect of Trimethyl Borate on Protecting High-Voltage Cathode Materials in Dual-Additive Electrolytes

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 May 12;13(18):21459-21466. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c04389. Epub 2021 Apr 27.

Authors

Qiuyan Liu^{1

2}, Gaojing Yang^{1

3}, Shuwei Li^{1

3}, Simeng Zhang^{1

2}, Renjie Chen⁴, Zhaoxiang Wang^{1

2

3}, Liquan Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Renewable Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory for New Energy Materials and Devices, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
² College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.

PMID: 33905650
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c04389

Abstract

The lack of electrolyte that is stable under high potentials hinders the application of high-voltage cathode materials for lithium batteries; the introduction of electrolyte additives is clearly the most effective solution to address this issue. Herein, we investigated the synergistic effects of trimethyl borate (TMB) in two dual-additive electrolytes on protecting the LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ and LiCoO₂ cathode materials under high potentials. The interactions of TMB with fluoroethylene carbonate and the catalysis of the decomposition product of TMB to tetramethylene sulfone lower the onset oxidation potential of these additives and are beneficial in forming a stable cathode electrolyte interphase film on the cathode materials. This work sheds light on another way of electrolyte designing for high-voltage cathode materials.

Keywords: CEI film; Li-ion battery; electrolyte additives; high voltage; synergy effect.