Fast Charging of Energy-Dense Lithium Metal Batteries in Localized Ether-Based Highly Concentrated Electrolytes

Li metal batteries (LMBs) employing high voltage cathodes show promise as next generation batteries for electric vehicles due to their high energy density. However, the cycling stability of such energy-dense LMBs at high charge rates has seldom been explored. In this work, Li Coulombic efficiency (CE) as a function of current density (i.e., C-rate) and temperature was investigated in ether-based highly concentrated electrolytes (HCEs). We found that Li metal anodes can be stably cycled in the HCEs at elevated temperatures with a high Li CE of >99.4% for a plating capacity of 3 mAh cm(-2) at a high C-rate greater than 1 C. The cycling stability of LMB full cells with Li(Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1)O-2 (NMC811) cathodes was also investigated at different charge rates (1 C to 3 C) at 40 and 60 degrees C. The LMBs with high areal capacity (similar to 3.2 mAh cm(-2)) NMC811 cathodes and minimal Li excess anodes (negative/positive capacity ratio (N/P ratio) <3.1) can achieve similar to 189 stable cycles with an average efficiency of similar to 99.86% at 1 C charge and C/3 discharge at 60 degrees C.

Automated summary

The study found that Li metal anodes can achieve high Coulombic efficiency in highly concentrated electrolytes at elevated temperatures, while LMBs with NMC811 cathodes can achieve stable charge and discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius.