Bioinspired Antiaging Binder Additive Addressing the Challenge of Chemical Degradation of Electrolyte at Cathode/Electrolyte Interphase

For layered transition metal oxides cathode-based lithium batteries, the chemical degradation of electrolytes leads to fast battery capacity decay, severely challenging their practical applications. This kind of chemical degradation of electrolytes is caused by the oxidation of reactive oxygen (e.g., singlet oxygen) and the attack of free radicals during cycling. To address this, we first report a biologically inspired antiaging strategy of developing the photostabilizer with singlet oxygen- and free radicals-scavenging abilities as a cathode binder additive. It is fully evidenced that this binder system consisting of the binder additive and a commercially available polyvinylidene difluoride can scavenge singlet oxygen and free radicals generated during high-voltage cycling, thus significantly restraining electrolyte decomposition. As a result, high-voltage layered transition metal oxides-based lithium batteries with reproducibly superior electrochemical performance, even under elevated temperatures, can be achieved. This bioinspired strategy to scavenge reactive oxygen and free radicals heralds a new paradigm for manipulating the cathode/electrolyte interphase chemistry of various rechargeable batteries involving layered transition metal oxides-based cathodes.