The formation of solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) in "water-in-salt" electrolyte (WiSE) expands the electrochemical stability window of aqueous electrolytes beyond 3.0 V. However, the parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction that drives anode corrosion, cracking, and the subsequent reformation of SEI still occurs, compromising long-term cycling performance of the batteries. To improve cycling stability, an unsaturated monomer acrylamide (AM) is introduced as an electrolyte additive, whose presence in WiSE reduces its viscosity and improves ionic conductivity. Upon charging, AM electropolymerizes into polyacrylamide, as confirmed both experimentally and computationally. The in situ polymer constitutes effective protection layers at both anode and cathode surfaces, and enables LiMn2 O4 ||L-TiO2 full cells with high specific capacity (157 mAh g-1 at 1 C), long-term cycling stability (80% capacity retention within 200 cycles at 1 C), and high rate capability (79 mAh g-1 at 30 C). The in situ electropolymerization found in this work provides an alternative and highly effective strategy to design protective interphases at the negative and positive electrodes for high-voltage aqueous batteries of lithium-ion or beyond.
Keywords: Solid-electrolyte interphases; cathode-electrolyte interphases; high-voltage aqueous lithium-ion batteries; in situ electropolymerization; “water-in-salt” electrolytes.
© 2021 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.