Electrolyte Additive Formulation for Advanced Battery Cells
HI MS and MEET scientists develop electrolyte additive formulations for high-performance lithium-based battery cells in the high-voltage range.
On the way to a climate-neutral society lithium-ion and lithium metal batteries are still the most promising energy storage system candidates for automotive and portable applications. Here, the introduction of functional electrolyte additives is one of the most effective and cost affordable approach to tune the overall performance of lithium-based batteries. In a related study, a team around Dr. Isidora Cekic-Laskovic from Helmholtz Institute Münster (HI MS) of Forschungszentrum Jülich undertook the task of identifying innovative additive mixtures for advanced lithium-based battery cell chemistries. The researchers published their results in the journal „Solid State Electrochemistry“.
Electrolyte Additives as “Vitamins” for Batteries
“If one pictures a battery cell as a human body, with the electrolyte as blood and electrodes as a heart, functional electrolyte additives can be seen as vitamins, as they should not – like the vitamins in a body – by definition change bulk properties of the electrolyte, but advance and tailor its performance in a given cell chemistry with regard to the desired functionality”, illustrates Cekic-Laskovic.
Thus, in their study the researchers inserted single functional additives and mixtures of the same additives into their electrolyte formulations. Then, they compared the different effects and analysed the advantages and disadvantages for the battery power. This way they identified customised combinations for lithium-ion and lithium metal batteries.
“As electrochemical applications require customised battery cell chemistries, there is no one solution for all batteries,” explains Cekic-Laskovic. The research team showed with its investigations, in which cases single additives and in which cases additive mixtures show better effects for the development of advanced functional electrolytes for lithium-based cell chemistries.
Synergies for more Power
“Furthermore, the systemic approach enabled us to show synergetic influences of every single functional additive in a mixture and to use the impact for the performance of the battery”, explains Dr. Markus Börner. The scientist from MEET Battery Research Center contributed to the structural analysis which helped the interdisciplinary team to assess the interactions of additives with further battery components, for example the interfaces of the electrode.
In a previous study the researchers had prepared the promising additives themselves. The newly synthesised compounds provide as electrolyte additives for a better performance in the high voltage range.
Natascha von Aspern, Dr. Christian Wölke und Dr. Isidora Cekic-Laskovic from HI MS, Dr. Markus Börner from MEET, as well as Prof. Martin Winter, HI MS and MEET, published their detailed results in the Open Access Article “Impact of single vs. blended functional electrolyte additives on interphase formation and overall lithium ion battery performance“. It is published by the Special issue of the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, which is dedicated to the 65th birthday of Prof. Fritz Scholz.