Towards more stable and ion-conductive organic electrolytes for rechargeable batteries

The global society urgently needs to remedy the effects of climate change resulting from burning fossil fuels and significantly increase the utilization of renewable energy. Rechargeable batteries are important enablers of sustainable energy use, as they can be employed to store energy generated from renewable but intermittent source. Enhancing the functionality of battery electrolytes, such as (electro)chemical stability and ion conductivity, can improve battery energy density, operation efficiency, and safety. This thesis explores strategies to improve the stability and ion conductivity of organic electrolytes for rechargeable batteries. Special attention is given to aprotic lithium-oxygen (Li-O₂) batteries, which offer theoretical energy densities that are 2 to 4 times increase over the state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Currently, the practical development of rechargeable Li-O₂ batteries is hindered by severe electrolyte degradations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Feng, Shuting,Ph.D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Yang Shao-Horn and Paula T. Hammond.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122529

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122529