Zwitterionic Electrolyte Additive for Lithium-Ion Batteries: Ammonium Alkyl Sulfonate

Electrolyte additive is an important component of lithium-ion batteries. At present, commercial film-forming additives can only work on either anode or cathode so as to increase the complexity and decrease the efficiency of the electrolyte. In this work, we designed and synthesized a novel zwitterionic 3-(triethylammonium)-propane-1-sulfonate (TEAPS) additive, which can adsorb on the surface of both graphite anode and LiCoO₂ cathode in propylene carbonate (PC) electrolyte. The kinetically and thermodynamically favorable film-forming reaction of TEAPS promotes the formation of a robust F/S/N-species domain interface, thereby enables greatly improved cycling performance. It is believed that the zwitterionic TEAPS will work as a novel versatile additive for high-performance LIBs.