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Anion chemistry in energy storage devices

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 7, pages 616–631 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Anions serve as an essential component of electrolytes, whose effects have long been ignored. However, since the 2010s, we have seen a considerable increase of anion chemistry research in a range of energy storage devices, and it is now understood that anions can be well tuned to effectively improve the electrochemical performance of such devices in many aspects. In this Review, we discuss the roles of anion chemistry across various energy storage devices and clarify the correlations between anion properties and their performance indexes. We highlight the effects of anions on surface and interface chemistry, mass transfer kinetics and solvation sheath structure. Finally, we conclude with a perspective on the challenges and opportunities of anion chemistry for enhancing specific capacity, output voltage, cycling stability and anti-self-discharge ability of energy storage devices.

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Fig. 1: The milestone studies of anion effects on various energy storage devices and the radii of typical cations and anions.
Fig. 2: The effects of anions on the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors.
Fig. 3: The influence of anions on the electrochemical performance of dual-ion batteries.
Fig. 4: The influence of anions on the electrochemical performance of cation rechargeable batteries and metal–oxygen and metal–sulfur batteries.
Fig. 5: The influence of anions on the surface-interface chemistry and mass transfer kinetics.
Fig. 6: The influence of anions on electrochemical stability window and the solvation sheath structure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the InnoHK Project (Project 1.3 — Flexible and Stretchable Technologies (FAST) for monitoring of CVD risk factors: sensing and applications and Project 1.4 — Flexible and Stretchable Technologies (FAST) for monitoring of CVD risk factors: soft battery and self-powered, flexible medical devices) at the Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-cardiovascular Health Engineering (COCHE). X.J. thanks the US National Science Foundation for the financial support with the award no. DMR 2221645.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Zhaodong Huang, Xinliang Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hong Kong Center for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering (COCHE), Hong Kong SAR, China

    Zhaodong Huang & Chunyi Zhi

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Zhaodong Huang, Xinliang Li, Ze Chen, Pei Li & Chunyi Zhi

  3. Henan Key Laboratory of Diamond Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Key Laboratory of Material Physics, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Xinliang Li

  4. Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Xiulei Ji

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Huang, Z., Li, X., Chen, Z. et al. Anion chemistry in energy storage devices. Nat Rev Chem 7, 616–631 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-023-00506-w

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