Open Access Publication of the Month – Wen Yang (IET-4) et al.

4 August 2026

To encourage us all to broaden our horizons, each month the Central Library selects one open access publication from the JuSER publications portal to be featured in the newsletter of Forschungszentrum Jülich.

In the open access publication of the month for August 2026, Wen Yang, Christian Rodenbücher, and Carsten Korte (all IET-4) together with Jiangshui Luo (Sichuan University, Chengdu, China) write about the development of a hybrid electrolyte for lithium batteries based on ionic liquids embedded in a metal–organic framework.

Conventional lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes, which pose a certain risk of leakage and, consequently, a risk of fire. Intensive research is therefore being conducted into alternative lithium-ion conductors that are either solid or in which a liquid electrolyte is immobilized.

This publication presents a quasi-solid-state lithium electrolyte in which a metal–organic framework (MOF) serves as the host material for a lithium-ion-conducting ionic liquid. The authors demonstrate that the metal–organic framework systematically expands upon contact with the liquid, thereby securely encapsulating it. Using the resulting hybrid material, a lithium battery with lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode and metallic lithium as the anode was constructed and successfully tested.

The open access publication entitled “A Li-ion battery electrolyte realized by encapsulation of a Li-containing ionic liquid in the metal-organic framework ZIF-8” was published in the journal Solid State Ionics.
JuSER publications portal – A Li-ion battery electrolyte realized by encapsulation of a Li-containing ionic liquid in the metal-organic framework ZIF-8

Forschungszentrum Jülich – Central Library (ZB) – Open Access

Forschungszentrum Jülich – Institute of Energy Technologies – Electrochemical Process Engineering (IET-4)
Sichuan University – College of Materials Science and Engineering