Bioinspired gel polymer electrolyte for wide temperature lithium metal battery

Stable operation of Li metal batteries with gel polymer electrolytes in a wide temperature range is highly expected. However, insufficient dynamics of ion transport and unstable electrolyte-electrode interfaces at extreme temperatures greatly hinder their practical applications. We report a bioinspired gel polymer electrolyte that enables high-energy-density Li metal batteries to work stably in a wide temperature range from –30 to 80 °C. The wide-temperature gel polymer electrolyte is fabricated by using a branched polymer of which side chains are double coupled with their asymmetric analogues. The double dipole coupling regulates the Li+ coordination environment to form a weak solvation structure that offers…