Nonflammable Ether and Phosphate-Based Liquid Electrolytes for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science

Background:

• Developing safe and efficient electrolytes is crucial for high-mass loading sodium-ion batteries.
• Current electrolytes often face challenges with flammability and limited performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate nonflammable liquid electrolytes for sodium-ion batteries.
• To understand the physicochemical properties and solvation structure of novel electrolyte systems.

Main Methods:

• Experimental investigation of ionic conductivity, viscosity, and nonflammability.
• Computational studies including molecular dynamics simulations.
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for solvation structure analysis.

Main Results:

• Diglyme-based electrolytes achieve nonflammability with 50 vol% phosphate solvents; tetraglyme-based electrolytes require 70 vol%.
• NMR and simulations revealed enhanced solvation in diglyme-based electrolytes.
• Physicochemical properties like ionic conductivity and viscosity were detailed.

Conclusions:

• This work provides fundamental insights into the solvation structure and properties of nonflammable ether-phosphate electrolytes.
• The findings contribute to future electrolyte design for sodium-ion batteries, despite current limitations in electrochemical stability.