Safety-Enhancing Additives for Lithium Ion Batteries

Electrolyte plays important roles on the performances of lithium ion batteries. Much attention has been attracted to the investigation of functional additives to the organic electrolytes in recent years. This paper is intended to review the recent progresses on the study of safety-enhancing additives including flame retardants to the commercially available carbonates-based electrolytes and overcharge protection (such as redox shuttles, potential-sensitive and temperature-sensitive) additives to the electrode as well as to the electrolytes for lithium ion batteries. The research status and the perspectives of each type of the additives are commented after an introduction to their operational mechanisms and electrochemical performances.