Solvation‐Shell Engineering Enables Additive‐Dominated Coordination for Stable Silicon Anodes Under Minimal Salt Conditions
Constructing a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is essential for enabling high-capacity alloying anodes in next-generation lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, conventional strategies based on high salt concentrations or expensive additives are limited by high cost, viscosity, and poor compatibility. Herein, we develop a solvation engineering strategy to increase the coordination number of additive molecules in the Li⁺ solvation shell by minimizing anion participation. A low-salt electrolyte composed of 0.2 M LiFSI (LiPF<sub>6</sub>) in DMM/THF/FEC (4:3:3 by vol%) enables additive-dominated coordination and facilitates the formation of a uniform, fluorine-rich SEI. Characterizations including molecular dynamics simulations, spectroscopy, and 3D electrode reconstruction confirm this tailored solvation environment stabilizes the Si interface and mitigates volume-induced degradation. As a result, silicon anode exhibits a specific capacity of ∼2000 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> over 200 cycles, while graphite anodes retain 96% capacity after 500 cycles. Stable cycling performances can also be achieved in different pouch cells. This work underscores the critical importance of additive coordination control in electrolyte design and provides a broadly applicable, cost-effective strategy for advancing alloy-type anodes in practical LIB systems.
Authors
- Tian Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1332-0834)
- Zhenming Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7039-3845)
- Zhenhui Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9771-7969)
- Yongyao Xia
- Ruohan Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3476-1628)
- Shizhu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3213-5746)
- Ping He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1498-8203)
- Jianwei Xiong
- Xuanning Chen
- Yulin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4234-2397)
- Mingbo Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4059-0132)
- Junhui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2810-1765)
- Zixia Lin
Institutions
- Fudan University (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
- Sanya University (CN)
- Yangzhou University (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
- Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-11-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202518092
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Advancements in Battery Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.92
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province