Improvement of Lithium-Metal Batteries by Addition of a Low Concentration of Organic Molecules

Batteries are already considered as one of the main issues if addressing global warming, and humans generate green energy while electrifying all their services. Increasing the ability to store energy for long periods of time will enable us to store solar and wind energy and use it where the sun or wind is not present. A known method for enhancing batteries is the use of additives to liquid electrolytes, which usually address the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) properties, including Li conductivity, roughness of deposits, and chemical composition. Their reduction starts upon first contact between the metal and the electrolyte and at the first charge of a lithium-metal cell. A good property SEI is essential for a safe and long-lasting cell. Herein, we explore widely used organic molecules as electrolyte additives for different Li-based batteries and their effect on the properties of the SEI. The investigated systems were Li-metal||Cu and NiCoAl||Cu which exhibited a 11.3% and 1.4% improvement in average Coulombic efficiency, respectively, reaching above 99.0%.