The ever-increasing demands for safe, energy dense and low cost energy storage systems have been driving interests in beyond Li-ion batteries such as those based on Li metal, magnesium metal and all solid state battery systems^[1,2]. These high energy density batteries suffer from several challenges, several of which are related to the instability or incompatibility of the electrolytes^[1,3,4]. Our group has been pioneering the development of electrolytes that enabled overcoming several key challenges in magnesium batteries and created a new family of highly performing and practical electrolytes ^[3,4]. One challenge with electrolytes for batteries in general is the high flammability and volatility, that can be overcome with the use ionic liquid solvents. However, available ionic liquids suffer from several key draw backs associated with insufficient anodic stability and incompatibility with reactive metallic anode.

Herein, we outline the classes of electrolyte materials we developed and how we overcome current challenges with ionic liquids for Mg and Li metal batteries.^[5]

References

[1] Choi J. W. Aurbach D. Nature Reviews Materials 1, 2016, 16013 1-16.

[2] Manthiram A., Yu X., Wang S. Nature Reviews Materials 2, 2017 16103.

[3] Mohtadi R., Orimo S., Nature Reviews Materials, 2016, 2,16091. 1311.

[4] Mohtadi R., Mizuno F. Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1291–

[5] Kar, M., Tutusaus O., Doug R. MacFarlane, Mohtadi R., Energy Environ. Sci., 2018, Advance Article