Instability of Ionic Liquid-Based Electrolytes in Li-O2 Batteries

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been proposed as promising solvents for Li-air battery electrolytes. Here, several ILs have been investigated using differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) to investigate the electrochemical stability in a Li-O-2 system, by means of quantitative determination of the rechargeability (GER/ORR), and thereby the Coulombic efficiency of discharge and charge. None of the IL-based electrolytes are found to behave as needed for a functional Li-O-2 battery but perform better than commonly used organic solvents. Also the extent of rechargeability/reversibility has been found to be strongly dependent on the choice of IL cation and anion as well as various impurities.