Li-rich cathodes have potential for use in next-generation Li-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their high specific capacity and low cost. However, their intrinsic cycling decay and voltage fading limit practical applications. In addition, these cathodes contain Co, which is nonrenewable, scarce, and expensive. This situation severely limits the rapid and sustainable development of low-cost LIBs. This paper introduces a novel dilute electrolyte to overcome these limitations based on the Co-free Li-rich Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.26O2 (LMNO) cathode. An even and robust cathode-electrolyte interface (CEI) formed on the surface of LMNO further protects it from side reactions in the dilute electrolyte. This Co-free Li-rich cathode exhibits the best electrochemical performance reported to date among Li-rich cathodes in terms of outstanding cycling stability (capacity retention of 99.8% at 0.5 C) and dramatically suppressed voltage fading (only 0.3% after 100 cycles). This study demonstrates the potential of Co-free Li-rich cathodes for applications in next-generation LIBs.
Potassium ion batteries using graphite anode and high-voltage cathodes are considered to be optimizing candidates for large-scale energy storage. However, the lack of suitable electrolytes significantly hinders the development of high-voltage potassium ion batteries. Herein, a dilute (0.8 m ) fluorinated phosphate electrolyte is proposed, which exhibits extraordinary compatibility with both graphite anode and high-voltage cathodes. The phosphate solvent, tris(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) phosphate (TFP), has weak solvating ability, which not only allows the formation of robust anion-derived solid electrolyte interphase on graphite anode but also effectively suppresses the corrosion of Al current collector at high voltage. Meanwhile, the high oxidative stability of fluorinated TFP solvent enables stable ultrahigh-voltage (4.95 V) cycling of a potassium vanadium fluorophosphate (KVPO 4 F) cathode. Using TFP-based electrolyte, the 4.9 V-class potassium ion full cell based on graphite anode and KVPO 4 F cathode shows rather remarkable cycling performance with a high capacity retention of 87.2% after 200 cycles. This study provides a route to develop dilute electrolytes for high-voltage potassium ion batteries, by utilizing solvents with both weak solvating ability and high oxidative stability.