Synergy of Weakly-Solvated Electrolyte and Optimized Interphase Enables Graphite Anode Charge at Low Temperature

Graphite anode suffers from great capacity loss and even fails to charge (i.e. Li⁺ -intercalation) under low temperature, mainly arising from the large overpotential including sluggish de-solvation process and insufficient ions movement in the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Herein, an electrolyte is developed by utilizing weakly solvated molecule ethyl trifluoroacetate and film-forming fluoroethylene carbonate to achieve smooth de-solvation and high ionic conductivity at low temperature. Evolution of SEI formed at different temperatures is further investigated to propose an effective room-temperature SEI formation strategy for low-temperature operations. The synergetic effect of tamed electrolyte and optimized SEI enables graphite with a reversible charge/discharge capacity of 183 mAh g^-1 at -30 °C and fast-charging up to 6C-rate at room temperature. Moreover, graphite||LiFePO₄ full cell maintains a capacity retention of 78 % at -30 °C, and 37 % even at a super-low temperature of -60 °C. This work offers a progressive insight towards fast-charging and low-temperature batteries.