Liquefied gas electrolytes point to safer batteries with high-energy

The liquefied gas electrolyte (LGE), developed by a team led by Y. Shirley Meng, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, also provides a path to sustainable, fire-extinguishing batteries that can be developed at scale. The research, involving Meng’s University of California San Diego labs, is detailed in Nature Energy.

Yijie Yin, a nanoengineering PhD student and co-first author of the paper, said: “In 2017, a team of UC San Diego nanoengineers discovered hydrofluorocarbon molecules that are gasses at room temperature and will liquefy under a certain pressure. They then invented a new type of electrolyte, which is called Liquefied Gas Electrolyte.” The related results were published in Science.

The LGE is claimed to greatly broaden the choice of electrolyte solvent molecules. The screened fluoromethane and difluoromethane small molecules have a low melting point, fast kinetics, and wide voltage window. With the combination of co-solvents, these characteristics make these liquefied gas electrolytes exhibit excellent low-temperature performance (< -60°C), Li metal Coulombic efficiency (>99.8 per cent), and high performance of high-voltage cathodes.