All-temperature batteries enabled by fluorinated electrolytes with non-polar solvents

Carbonate electrolytes are commonly used in commercial non-aqueous Li-ion batteries. However, the high affinity between the solvents and the ions and high flammability of the carbonate electrolytes limits the battery operation temperature window to -20 to + 50 degrees C and the voltage window to 0.0 to 4.3 V. Here, we tame the affinity between solvents and Li ions by dissolving fluorinated electrolytes into highly fluorinated non-polar solvents. In addition to their non-flammable characteristic, our electrolytes enable high electrochemical stability in a wide voltage window of 0.0 to 5.6 V, and high ionic conductivities in a wide temperature range from -125 to + 70 degrees C. We show that between -95 and + 70 degrees C, the electrolytes enable LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 cathodes to achieve high Coulombic efficiencies of >99.9%, and the aggressive Li anodes and the high-voltage (5.4 V) LiCoMnO4 to achieve Coulombic efficiencies of >99.4% and 99%, respectively. Even at -85 degrees C, the LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 parallel to Li battery can still deliver similar to 50% of its room-temperature capacity.