Grease quasi-solid electrolyte with flame retardant property for lithium-metal battery

Lithium-metal batteries are ideal energy storage devices due to their potential and capacity expansion over conventional lithium-ion batteries. However, their problems in energy storage safety, such as inevitable electrolyte leakage, flammability, explosion risks, and vulnerability to external puncture, inhibit their application in energy storage, especially flexible energy storage. In this work, a grease quasi-solid electrolyte is designed, which effectively suppresses electrolyte leakage and spontaneous combustion. A network structure constructed by dimer small molecules is proposed for application in electrolyte materials. A unique quasi-solid electrolyte network structure is obtained, which effectively accommodates the electrolyte and inhibits combustion. In addition, the ion transfer of quasi-solid-state batteries is not significantly inhibited, and they can still maintain a relatively stable cycle. In the half-cell test, the overpotential remains at 1.294 mV, and the battery capacity reaches 187.26 mAh/g at a unit mass current density of 5.95 mA/g. This work provides an idea for quasi-solid electrolyte design and for improving the safety of lithium-metal batteries.