Engineering cathode-electrolyte interface of graphite to enable ultra long-cycle and high-power dual-ion batteries

Dual-ion battery (DIB) can potentially provide higher power, lower cost and faster charging capability than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Even though graphite can effectively accommodate anions as a cathode for DIB, the high working voltage of around 5 V vs. Li/Li+ leads to continuous side reactions, yielding to low Coulombic efficiency (CE < 90%) and poor cycle life. Here, we demonstrate that fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive can induce a protective cathode electrolyte interface (CEI) on the graphite cathode, effectively suppressing electrolyte decomposition and stabilizing the graphite surface. This CEI enables a high CE (~99.0%) and an excellent cycle stability of 5000 cycles with capacity retention of 85.1% at the cutoff voltage of 5.1 V. The CEI layer can also reduce the self-discharge of the battery. Furthermore, the DIB exhibits a high-rate capability with 93.3% utilization at 30C (3000 mA g−1), enabling an ultrafast charging time within two minutes. This work sheds light on the features of CEI on graphite cathodes and provides a facile and economically effective strategy to achieve highly reversible/stable cycling of DIBs with high power capability.