Regulating Interfacial Chemistry in Lithium‐Ion Batteries by a Weakly Solvating Electrolyte**

The performance of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) is highly dependent on their interfacial chemistry, which is regulated by electrolytes. Conventional electrolyte typically contains polar solvents to dissociate Li salts. Herein we report a weakly solvating electrolyte (WSE) that consists of a pure non-polar solvent, which leads to a peculiar solvation structure where ion pairs and aggregates prevail under a low salt concentration of 1.0 M. Importantly, WSE forms unique anion-derived interphases on graphite electrodes that exhibit fast-charging and long-term cycling characteristics. First-principles calculations unravel a general principle that the competitive coordination between anions and solvents to Li ions is the…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 21825501, 21805161, and U1801257
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2016YFA0202500