Intensive studies of an advanced energy material are reported and lithium polyacrylate (LiPAA) is proven to be a surprisingly unique, multifunctional binder for high‐voltage Li‐ion batteries. The absence of effective passivation at the interface of high‐voltage cathodes in Li‐ion batteries may negatively affect their electrochemical performance, due to detrimental phenomena such as electrolyte solution oxidation and dissolution of transition metal cations. A strategy is introduced to build a stable cathode–electrolyte solution interphase for LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) spinel high‐voltage cathodes during the electrode fabrication process by simply using LiPAA as the cathode binder. LiPAA is a superb binder due to unique adhesion, cohesion, and wetting properties. It forms a uniform thin passivating film on LNMO and conducting carbon particles in composite cathodes and also compensates Li‐ion loss in full Li‐ion batteries by acting as an extra Li source. It is shown that these positive roles of LiPAA lead to a significant improvement in the electrochemical performance (e.g., cycle life, cell impedance, and rate capability) of LNMO/graphite battery prototypes, compared with that obtained using traditional polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) binder for LNMO cathodes. In addition, replacing PVdF with LiPAA binder for LNMO cathodes offers better adhesion, lower cost, and clear environmental advantages.

The impact of lithium bis(oxalate)borate (LiBOB) electrolyte additive on the performance of full lithium-ion cells pairing the high-voltage spinel cathode with the graphite anode was systematically investigated. Adding 1 wt % LiBOB to the electrolyte significantly improved the cycle life and Coulombic efficiency of the full-cells at 30 and 45 °C. As the LiBOB was preferentially oxidized and reduced compared with LiBOB-free electrolyte during cycling, their relative contributions to the improved capacity retention in full-cells was gauged by pairing fresh and LiBOB-treated electrodes with various combinations. The results indicated that a solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) film on graphite produced by the reduction of the LiBOB additive is more robust and stable against Mn dissolution problem during cycling at 45 °C compared with the SEI formed by the reduction of the base (LiBOB-free) electrolyte. In addition, a 3 wt % LiBOB-added electrolyte showed reduced Mn dissolution compared with the base electrolyte after storing the fully charged Li1–x Ni0.42Fe0.08Mn1.5O4 (LNFMO) electrodes at 60 °C for one month. It is believed that LiBOB aids in stabilizing the electrolyte by trapping the PF5, i.e., sequestering the radical which tends to oxidize EC and DEC electrolyte solvents. Thus, oxidation is suppressed on the carbon black particles in the positive electrode, as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses. As a result, HF generation is suppressed, which in turn results in less Mn dissolution from the spinel cathode.

Accurate modeling of Li-ion batteries performance, particularly during the transient conditions experienced in automotive applications, requires knowledge of electrolyte transport properties (ionic conductivity κ, salt diffusivity D, and lithium ion transference number t(+)) over a wide range of salt concentrations and temperatures. While specific conductivity data can be easily obtained with modern computerized instrumentation, this is not the case for D and t(+). A combination of NMR and MRI techniques was used to solve the problem. The main advantage of such an approach over classical electrochemical methods is its ability to provide spatially resolved details regarding the chemical and dynamic features of charged species in solution, hence the ability to present a more accurate characterization of processes in an electrolyte under operational conditions. We demonstrate herein data on ion transport properties (D and t(+)) of concentrated LiPF6 solutions in a binary ethylene carbonate (EC)-dimethyl carbonate (DMC) 1:1 v/v solvent mixture, obtained by the proposed technique. The buildup of steady-state (time-invariant) ion concentration profiles during galvanostatic experiments with graphite-lithium metal cells containing the electrolyte was monitored by pure phase-encoding single point imaging MRI. We then derived the salt diffusivity and Li(+) transference number over the salt concentration range 0.78-1.27 M from a pseudo-3D combined PFG-NMR and MRI technique. The results obtained with our novel methodology agree with those obtained by electrochemical methods, but in contrast to them, the concentration dependences of salt diffusivity and Li(+) transference number were obtained simultaneously within the single in situ experiment.

We used NMR imaging (MRI) combined with data analysis based on inverse modeling of the mass transport problem to determine ionic diffusion coefficients and transference numbers in electrolyte solutions of interest for Li-ion batteries. Sensitivity analyses have shown that accurate estimates of these parameters (as a function of concentration) are critical to the reliability of the predictions provided by models of porous electrodes. The inverse modeling (IM) solution was generated with an extension of the Planck-Nernst model for the transport of ionic species in electrolyte solutions. Concentration-dependent diffusion coefficients and transference numbers were derived using concentration profiles obtained from in situ (19)F MRI measurements. Material properties were reconstructed under minimal assumptions using methods of variational optimization to minimize the least-squares deviation between experimental and simulated concentration values with uncertainty of the reconstructions quantified using a Monte Carlo analysis. The diffusion coefficients obtained by pulsed field gradient NMR (PFG-NMR) fall within the 95% confidence bounds for the diffusion coefficient values obtained by the MRI+IM method. The MRI+IM method also yields the concentration dependence of the Li(+) transference number in agreement with trends obtained by electrochemical methods for similar systems and with predictions of theoretical models for concentrated electrolyte solutions, in marked contrast to the salt concentration dependence of transport numbers determined from PFG-NMR data.

We report herein on the determination of several mass transport properties (diffusion coefficients for cations, anions, and neutral ionic aggregates; cation transference number) and degree of salt association in electrolyte solutions of practical interest (LiPF 6 solutions in binary organic carbonate mixtures), through an analysis of pulsed field gradient NMR and specific conductivity data. Results were obtained as a function of LiPF 6 salt concentration in a binary ethylene carbonate (EC) -dimethyl carbonate (DMC) mixture at 1:1 volume ratios and 30 • C, also from 5 • C to 35 • C for 1 M LiPF 6 dissolved in binary mixtures of EC with DMC and EMC at 3:7, 1:1 and 7:3 volume ratios. Li + transference numbers have significantly lower values than the transport numbers, ranging from 0.31 to 0.35, and display a correct (decreasing) variation with salt concentration, contrary to the trend observed for transport numbers. A remarkably high degree of ion pairing (from 36% to 67%) was observed for the solutions investigated in the present work.