Soluble and Perfluorinated Polyelectrolyte for Safe and High-Performance Li-O₂ Batteries

The severe performance degradation of high-capacity Li-O₂ batteries induced by Li dendrite growth and concentration polarization from the low Li⁺ transfer number of conventional electrolytes hinder their practical applications. Herein, lithiated Nafion (LN) with the sulfonic group immobilized on the perfluorinated backbone has been designed as a soluble lithium salt for preparing a less flammable polyelectrolyte solution, which not only simultaneously achieves a high Li⁺ transfer number (0.84) and conductivity (2.5 mS cm^-1 ), but also the perfluorinated anion of LN produces a LiF-rich SEI for protecting the Li anode from dendrite growth. Thus, the Li-O₂ battery with a LN-based electrolyte achieves an all-round performance improvement, like low charge overpotential (0.18 V), large discharge capacity (9508 mAh g^-1 ), and excellent cycling performance (225 cycles). Besides, the fabricated pouch-type Li-air cells exhibit promising applications to power electronic equipment with satisfactory safety.