23 Dec Towards a high conductive and safer lithium battery electrolyte

For decades, lithium battery (LiB) has been growing at a very fast pace owing to its considerable advantages, notably in terms of energy density. However, with the development of high energy consuming devices, more and more powerful and fast charging Li-ion batteries are required. Thus, limitation of energy density and safety issues observed lead to perform suitable technology as Li-Metal batteries. Compared to Li-ion technology, this battery uses lithium metal as anode material requiring a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) or a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) to limit or suppress dentritic growth. Chemistry, performance, cost and safety characteristics vary across LIB types. Within this scope, for couple years SPECIFIC POLYMERS contributes to the development of tomorrow’s lithium battery electrolyte by the production of a large range of lithium salts, conductive polymers, additives and plasticizers.

Lithium Salts Derivates

SPECIFIC POLYMERS commercializes LiTFSI derivatives, MTFSILi (SP-49-023) and STFSILi (SP-59-011), as promising single lithium-ion conductive polymer electrolyte. Indeed, TFSI moiety is considered as the best candidate for Li salt in lithium batteries and LiTFSI is highly soluble in the usual solvents. Studies on their polymerization and development of new salts are underway.

Additives and Plasticizers

Additives and plasticizers are widely used to enhance the performance and the safety of GPE and SPE. To avoid safety issues due to leak or flammability risks, SPECIFIC POLYMERS develops low vapor pressure compounds as cyclic carbonate or organosilicon. Low viscosity, high mobility, large electrochemical stability window and high dielectric constant enable electrolyte performances improvement.