Carbonized Polymer Dots with Controllable N,O Functional Groups as Electrolyte Additives to Achieve Stable Li Metal Batteries

Electrolyte additive is an effective strategy to inhibit the uncontrolled growth of Li dendrites for lithium metal batteries (LMBs). However, most of the additives are complex synthesis and prone to decompose in cycling. Herein, in order to guide the homogeneous deposition of Li⁺, carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) as electrolyte additives are successfully designed and synthesized by microwave (M-CPDs) and hydrothermal (H-CPDs) approaches. The controllable functional groups containing N or O (especially pyridinic-N, pyrrolic-N, and carboxyl group) enable CPDs to keep stable in electrolytes for at least 3 months. Meanwhile, the clusters formed between CPDs and Li⁺ through electrostatic interaction effectively guide the uniform Li dispersion and limit the “tip effect” and dendrite formation. Moreover, as lithiophilic groups increase, the strong electrostatic interference for the solvation effect of Li⁺ in the electrolyte is formed, which induces faster Li⁺ diffusion/transfer. As expected, H-CPDs achieve the ultra-even Li⁺ transfer. The corresponding Li//LiFePO₄ full cell delivers a high capacity retention rate of 93.8% after 200 cycles, which is much higher than that of the cells without additives (61.2%) and with M-CPDs (83.7%) as additives. The strategy in this work provides a theoretical direction for CPDs as electrolyte additives used in energy storage devices.