Enhanced Potassium Storage Performance for K-Te Batteries via Electrode Design and Electrolyte Salt Chemistry

Potassium batteries are an emerging energy storage technology due to the large abundance of potassium, low cost, and potentially high energy density. However, it remains challenging to find suitable electrode materials with high energy density and good cycling stability due to the structural instability and kinetics issues resulting from large size K⁺. Herein, a durable and high-capacity K-Te battery was developed by rational design of a Te/C electrode and electrolyte salt chemistry. A well-confined Te/C cathode structure was prepared by using a commercially available activated carbon as the Te host via a melt-diffusion method. Compared to bulky Te, the confined Te/C electrode exhibited greatly improved cycling stability, specific capacity, and rate capability in K-Te batteries. Moreover, it was found that the electrolyte salts (KPF₆ and KFSI) had significant impacts on the electrochemical performance of K-Te batteries. The Te/C electrode in the KPF₆-based carbonate electrolyte exhibited higher specific capacity and better rate performance than the Te/C electrode in the KFSI-based one. Mechanism studies revealed that the KPF₆ salt resulted in an organic species-rich solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the Te/C electrode, allowing for fast electron transfer and K-ion diffusion and enhanced K-ion storage performance in K-Te batteries. In contrast, KFSI salt led to the formation of KF-rich SEI layers, which had much higher resistances for electron and K-ion transport and was less effective for the well-confined Te/C electrode. Our work finds that the Te electrode and electrolyte chemistry need to be simultaneously optimized and tailored toward K-ion storage in K-Te batteries. It is expected that the finding reported herein might be inspirable for the future development of K-chalcogen (S/Se/Te) batteries.