Realization of Long-Life Proton Battery by Layer Intercalatable Electrolyte

Abstract

Proton batteries have attracted increasing interests because of their potential for grid-scale energy storage with high safety and great low-temperature performances. However, their development is significantly retarded by electrolyte design due to free water corrosion. Herein, we report a layer intercalatable electrolyte (LIE) by introducing trimethyl phosphate (TMP) into traditional acidic electrolyte. Different from conventional role in batteries, the presence of TMP intriguingly achieves co-intercalation of solvent molecules into the interlayer of anode materials, enabling a new working mechanism for proton reactions. The electrode corrosion was also strongly retarded with expanded electrochemical stability window. The half-cell therefore showed an outstanding long-term cycling stability with 91.0 % capacity retention at 5 A g⁻¹ after 5000 cycles. Furthermore, the assembled full batteries can even deliver an ultra-long lifetime with a capacity retention of 74.9 % for 2 months running at −20 °C. This work provides new opportunities for electrolyte design of aqueous batteries.