An Upgraded Lithium Ion Battery Based on a Polymeric Separator Incorporated with Anode Active Materials

Structural/compositional characteristics at the anode/electrolyte interface are of paramount importance for the practical performance of lithium ion batteries, including cyclic stability, rate capacity, and operational safety. The anode-electrolyte interface with traditional separator technology is featured with inevitable phase discontinuity and fails to support the stable operation of lithium ion batteries based on large-capacity anodes with structural change in charges/discharges, such as transition metal oxide anodes. In this work, an anode/electrolyte framework based on an oxide anode and an active-oxide-incorporated separator is proposed for the first time and investigated for lithium ion batteries. The architecture builds a robust anode-separator interface in LIBs, shortens Li ⁺ diffusion path, accelerates electron transport, and mitigates the volume change of the oxide anode in electrochemical reactions. Remarkably, 4 wt% CuO addition in the separator leads to a 17% enhancement in the overall capacity of a battery with a CuO anode. The battery delivers an unparalleled record reversible capacity of 637.2 mAh g ⁻¹ with a 99% capacity retention after 100 charge/discharge cycles at 0.5 C. The high performance are attributed to the robust anode-separator interface, which gives rise to enhanced interaction between the oxide anode and the same-oxide-incorporated composite in the separator.