Research progress of liquid-crystalline electrolytes in lithium ion batteries

doi:10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2020.0176

Abstract

Abstract:

The development of novel high-performance electrolytes is an important method to solve the problems including safety hazard and insufficient energy density facing traditional lithium ion batteries. Liquid-crystalline electrolytes maintain fluidity of liquid and the anisotropy of crystal, so that it can be mixed with lithium salt to prepare liquid crystal electrolyte, which can form nano segregation structure of columnar, smectic or bicontinuous cubic phases through self-assembly to provide an efficient ion conduction path for Li⁺ transmission, exhibiting potential applications for lithium ion batteries. Despite some progress, however, there is no systematical review on the recent progress of liquid-crystalline electrolytes so as to gain the current development situation and guide the future development. Here, this review introduces the research progress of liquid-crystalline electrolytes through the discussion of related literatures, highlights on the description of the ion transport mechanism of lithium ions in non-ionic and ionic liquid-crystalline electrolytes and summarizes the electrochemical performance of liquid-crystalline electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries. Comprehensive analysis shows that liquid-crystalline electrolytes can improve the electrochemical performance by further optimizing the structure of liquid-crystalline molecules or adding liquid plasticizers, which is expected to be applied to high-performance lithium-ion batteries. Finally, this review presents the current challenges and the possible development trend of liquid-crystalline electrolytes in the future.

Key words: lithium ion batteries, liquid-crystalline electrolytes, ionic conduction

CLC Number:

TQ 911

Xintong LI, Linchen ZHANG, Huanrui ZHANG, Botao ZHANG, Guanglei CUI. Research progress of liquid-crystalline electrolytes in lithium ion batteries[J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(6): 1595-1605.

Figures/Tables 4

References 30

1	KATO T, YOSHIO M, ICHIKAWA T, et al. Transport of ions and electrons in nanostructured liquid crystals[J]. Nature Reviews Materials, 2017, 2(4): 17001.
2	Kimura K, Hirao M, Yokoyama M. Synthesis of a crowned azobenzene liquid crystal and its application to thermoresponsive lon-conducting films[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 1991, 1(2): 293-294.
3	PERCEC V, JOHANSSON G, HECK J, et al. Molecular recognition directed self-assembly of supramolecular cylindrical channel-like architectures from 6,7,9,10,12,13,15,16-octahydro-l,4,7,1O,l3- pentaoxabenzocyclopentadecen-2-ylmethyl 3,4,5-tris(p-dodecyloxybenzyl-oxy) benzoate[J]. Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions, 1993, 1: 1411-1420.
4	OHTAKE T, OGASAWARA M, ITO-AKITA K, et al. Liquid-crystalline complexes of mesogenic dimers containing oxyethylene moieties with LiCF₃SO₃: Self-organized ion conductive materials[J]. Chemistry of Materials, 2000, 12: 782-789.
5	HÖGBERG D, SOBERATS B, UCHIDA S, et al. Nanostructured two-component liquid-crystalline electrolytes for high-temperature dye-sensitized solar cells[J]. Chemistry of Materials, 2014, 26(22): 6496-6502.
6	HÖGBERG D, SOBERATS B, YATAGAI R, et al. Liquid-crystalline dye-sensitized solar cells: Design of two-dimensional molecular assemblies for efficient ion transport and thermal stability[J]. Chemistry of Materials, 2016, 28(18): 6493-6500.
7	SHIMURA H, YOSHIO M, HOSHINO K, et al. Noncovalent approach to one-dimensional ion conductors: enhancement of ionic conductivities in nanostructured columnar liquid crystals[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2008, 130: 1759-1765.
8	YOSHIO M, MUKAI T, OHNO H, et al. One-dimensional ion transport in self-organized columnar ionic liquids[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2003, 126: 994-995.
9	YOSHIO M, KAGATA T, HOSHINO K, et al. One-dimensional ion-conductive polymer films: Alignment and fixation of ionic channels formed by self-organization of polymerizable columnar liquid crystals[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006, 128: 5570-5577.
10	ICHIKAWA T, YOSHIO M, HAMASAKI A, et al. Self-organization of room-temperature ionic liquids exhibiting liquid-crystalline bicontinuous cubic phases: Formation of nano-ion channel networks[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2007, 129: 10662-10663.
11	ICHIKAWA T, YOSHIO M, HAMASAKI A, et al. Induction of thermotropic bicontinuous cubic phases in liquid-crystalline ammonium and phosphonium salts[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012, 134(5): 2634-2643.
12	SOBERATS B, YOSHIO M, ICHIKAWA T, et al. 3D Anhydrous proton-transporting nanochannels formed by self-assembly of liquid crystals composed of a sulfobetaine and a sulfonic acid[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013, 135(41): 15286-15289.
13	CHOW C F, ROY V A L, YE Z, et al. Novel high proton conductive material from liquid crystalline 4-(octadecyloxy)phenylsulfonic acid[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2010, 20(30): 6245-6249.
14	SHIMURA H, YOSHIO M, HAMASAKI A, et al. Electric-field-responsive lithium-ion conductors of propylenecarbonate-based columnar liquid crystals[J]. Advanced Materials, 2009, 21(16): 1591-1594.
15	EISELE A, KYRIAKOS K, BHANDARY R, et al. Structure and ionic conductivity of liquid crystals having propylene carbonate units[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2015, 3(6): 2942-2953.
16	SAKUDA J, HOSONO E, YOSHIO M, et al. Liquid-crystalline electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries: Ordered assemblies of a mesogen-containing carbonate and a lithium salt[J]. Advanced Functional Materials, 2015, 25(8): 1206-1212.
17	ONUMA T, HOSONO E, TAKENOUCHI M, et al. Noncovalent approach to liquid-crystalline ion conductors: High-rate performances and room-temperature operation for Li-ion batteries[J]. ACS Omega, 2018, 3(1): 159-166.
18	BOGDANOWICZ K A, GANCARZ P, FILAPEK M, et al. Solvent-free thiophene-based electrolytes: Synthesis of new liquid-crystalline ionic conductors for batteries: part I[J]. Dalton Transactions, 2018, 47(44): 15714-15724.
19	STOEVA Z, LU Z, INGRAM M D, et al. A new polymer electrolyte based on a discotic liquid crystal triblock copolymer[J]. Electrochimica Acta, 2013, 93: 279-286.
20	LIU Z, DONG B X, MISRA M, et al. Self-assembly behavior of an oligothiophene-based conjugated liquid crystal and its implication for ionic conductivity characteristics[J]. Advanced Functional Materials, 2019, 29(2): 1805220.
21	ONUMA T, YOSHIO M, OBI M, et al. Liquid-crystalline behavior and ion transport properties of block-structured molecules containing a perfluorinated ethylene oxide moiety complexed with a lithium salt[J]. Polymer Journal, 2018, 50(9): 889-898.
22	MAJEWSKI P W, GOPINADHAN M, OSUJI C O. The effects of magnetic field alignment on lithium ion transport in a polymer electrolyte membrane with lamellar morphology[J]. Polymers (Basel), 2019, 11(5): 887.
23	WANG S, WANG A, YANG C, et al. Six-arm star polymer based on discotic liquid crystal as high performance all-solid-state polymer electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries[J]. Journal of Power Sources, 2018, 395: 137-147.
24	CAO X, CHENG J, ZHANG X, et al. Composite polymer electrolyte based on liquid crystalline copolymer with high-temperature stability and bendability for all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries[J]. International Journal of Electrochemical Science, 2020, 15(1): 677-695.
25	GOOSSENS K, LAVA K, BIELAWSKI C W, et al. Ionic liquid crystals: Versatile materials[J]. Chemical Reviews, 2016, 116(8): 4643-4807.
26	LEE J H, HAN K S, LEE J S, et al. Facilitated ion transport in smectic ordered ionic liquid crystals[J]. Advanced Materials, 2016, 28(42): 9301-9307.
27	YUAN F, CHI S, DONG S, et al. Ionic liquid crystal with fast ion-conductive tunnels for potential application in solvent-free Li-ion batteries[J]. Electrochimica Acta, 2019, 294: 249-259.
28	ICHIKAWA T, YOSHIO M, HAMASAKI A, et al. 3D interconnected ionic nano-channels formed in polymer films: self-organization and polymerization of thermotropic bicontinuous cubic liquid crystals[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011, 133(7): 2163-2169.
29	SOBERATS B, YOSHIO M, ICHIKAWA T, et al. Zwitterionic liquid crystals as 1D and 3D lithium ion transport media[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2015, 3(21): 11232-11238.
30	KERR R L, MILLER S A, SHOEMAKER R K, et al. New type of Li ion conductor with 3D interconnected nanopores via polymerization of a liquid organic electrolyte-filled lyotropic liquid-crystal assembly[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009, 131(44): 15972-15973.

[1]	Zhongmin REN, Bin WANG, Shuaishuai CHEN, Hua LI, Zhenlian CHEN, Deyu WANG. Mechanics-induced degradation on layer-structured cathodes and remedies to address it [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2022, 11(3): 948-956.
[2]	Chengzhi KE, Bensheng XIAO, Miao LI, Jingyu LU, Yang HE, Li ZHANG, Qiaobao ZHANG. Research progress in understanding of lithium storage behavior and reaction mechanism of electrode materials through in situ transmission electron microscopy [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2021, 10(4): 1219-1236.
[3]	Dechao GUO, Yimin GUO, Qiwen ZHANG, Xiangyun CI, Fengrong HE. Preparation and characterization of solvent-free dry electrodes for lithium ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2021, 10(4): 1311-1316.
[4]	Yilong LIN, Min XIAO, Dongmei HAN, Shuanjin WANG, Yuezhong MENG. Research progress in formation technique for LIBs [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2021, 10(1): 50-58.
[5]	Taihua WANG, Shujie ZHANG, Jin'gan CHEN. Low temperature charging performance optimization of lithium battery based on BP-PSO Algorithm [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(6): 1940-1947.
[6]	Xuejiao NIE, Jinzhi GUO, Meiyi WANG, Zhenyi GU, Xinxin ZHAO, Xu YANG, Haojie LIANG, Xinglong WU. Using spent lithium manganate to prepare Li_0.25Na_0.6MnO₂as cathode material in sodium-ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(5): 1402-1409.
[7]	Xingang MA, Yuwei ZANG, Lianke XIE, Jianguang YIN, Guoying ZHANG, Rongchun MA, Xianzheng YUAN. Engineering pseudocapacitive lithium storage based on ultra-fine SnS₂-carbon3D microstructure [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(5): 1467-1471.
[8]	WANG Taihua, ZHANG Shujie, CHEN Jingan. Low temperature charging aging modeling and optimization of charging strategy for lithium batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(4): 1137-1146.
[9]	MA Tengfei, MA Chao, SUN Rui, JI Hongmei, YANG Gang. Freeze-drying assisted synthesis of mno/reduced graphene composite and the improved rate cyclic performance for lithium ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(4): 1044-1051.
[10]	ZOU Jian, WANG Bojun, YANG Jiachao, NIU Xiaobin, WANG Liping. Electrochemical performance of β-Li_0.3V₂O₅ as a lithium-ion battery cathode material [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(2): 353-360.
[11]	ZHOU Xiaolong, OU Xuewu, LIU Qirong, TANG Yongbing. Research progress on dual-ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(2): 551-568.
[12]	MAO Shulan, WU Qian, WANG Zhuoya, LU Yingying. Research progress on high-voltage electrolytes for ternary NCM lithium-ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(2): 538-550.
[13]	CHEN Xiaoxia, LIU Kai, WANG Baoguo. Research on high-safety electrolytes and their application in lithium-ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(2): 583-592.
[14]	GUAN Yibiao, SHEN Jinran, LI Kangle, GUAN Zhaoruxin, ZHOU Shuqin, GUO Cuijing, XU Bin. Application of graphene conductive additives in cathodes of lithium ion batteries [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(1): 70-81.
[15]	LIU Xingwen, HE Jinxin, WANG Hailin, JIN Chengyou, MIAO Yonghua, XUE Chi. Preparation and electrochemical performance of F-doped SiO@C composite material [J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2019, 8(S1): 56-59.